J LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. !j 

{UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. | 



\-c y f < .- s . / j £ ^ 



THE 



RELIGIOX OF CHILDHOOD: 



OR, 



CHILDREN IN THEIR RELATION TO NATIVE DEPRAVITY, TO THE 
ATONEMENT, TO THE FAMILY, AND TO THE CHURCH. 

J3Y 

REV. F. G. HIBBAEP, D. P. 



" Where is the flock that was given thee, thy heantifnl flock ?" 

Jeremiah tttt, 20. 



CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED BY POE k HITCHCOCK: 



FOR THE AUTHOR. 



. P. TH0MPS05, PRI5TER. 
1864. 



<*$* 



COPYRIGHT SECURED. 



X^-2.3 4 




PKEFACE 



1. The object of this work is twofold — to ascertain 
the Scriptural doctrine respecting the moral condition 
of our race prior to responsibility and irrespective of 
Christian sacraments — and so far it is humbly offered 
as a contribution to doctrinal theology — and to en- 
courage the early consecration of children to " God, 
and their faithful Christian nurture. The practical 
end is the ultimate end sought ; but in order to it the 
foundation of Christian doctrine must be laid in un- 
questioned certainty. The Church must emerge from 
the misty regions of polemic theology into the calm 
and clear atmosphere of faith. The authority of the 
Divine Word must be the ground on which her faith 
and practice rest. Then, and not till then, may we 
hope to see uniformity in parental training and Church 
discipline in regard to the children, and the promise 
fulfilled, " Their children shall be as aforetime, and 
their congregation be established before me." Jer. 
xxx, 20. 

2. The ground taken in this work is, that all chil- 
dren are in a state of favor with God through the 
grace of atonement, and that this gracious state is not 



4 PKEFACE. 

a simple acquittal from the penalty due to original 
sin, but also a moral effect wrought in them, the im- 
partation of a positive "gift," a principle of life, a 
meetness for heaven, or quickening of their nature. 
A dispute about words I decline. The meaning in- 
tended will be best understood by a candid and close 
reading of the argument. If the word regeneration is 
to be used at all in reference to the moral state of in- 
fants, it is to be used only in that qualified sense I 
have given it in Chapter IV. We do not, however, 
recommend the use of the term in this application, 
because, being true only in a qualified or elemental 
sense, it would be liable to misapprehension and abuse. 
The only point we propose as being fairly settled by 
Scriptural authority is, that as the child has a sinful 
nature some change must be wrought upon it to make 
it fit for the kingdom of God if it dies, or to prepare 
it for right, responsible action if it lives, and that that 
change is of the nature of life, a quickening of our 
nature, not merely an acquittal from the penalty, or 
change of legal relation. 

This is no new doctrine. It has been held in the 
Church in all ages — modified largely, indeed, by the 
doctrines of predestination and particular election on 
the one hand, and of baptismal regeneration on the 
other. There has been nothing peculiar in the doc- 
trine of any age of the Church, or of any branch 



PREFACE. 5 

of it — Catholic or Protestant, Lutheran or Reformed, 
Calvimstic or Arminian — as to the nature or quality 
of saving grace; all holding it to be of the nature 
of life or regeneration, whether in adult or infant. 
The differences of opinion have respected simply the 
universality of this grace to infants, or its relation 
to the sacrament of baptism. The Arminians regard 
all children alike in their relation to the atonement. 
Whatever comes to one, through Christ, comes to all. 
Logically and doctrinally they are held to this. The 
sacrament of baptism is a recognition of their gracious 
state, not the cause or the appointed channel of it. 
They also hold to the possibility of the regeneration 
of infants as well as the certainty of it in those who 
die. Thus Dr. Olin says : " We all believe that God's 
grace renews those infants who die and go to heaven 
before they know how to discern the right hand from 
the left. This quite dissipates the philosophical ob- 
jection ; there is no natural obstacle to the work 
of grace in a child." In Dr. Stevens's life of Dr. 
Bangs he records the baptism of his infant daughter, 
Mary Eliza Bangs, and says: "At her baptism such 
a heavenly influence rested upon those assembled 
that the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, who baptized her, 
remarked, ' I had such nearness to God while praying 
for that infant that I believe the Lord regenerated 
her soul in the baptismal rite.' " The whole account, 



b PREFACE. 

and the after history of the child, are very remark- 
able. I quote it simply to show that in the opinions 
of the Methodistic fathers the regeneration of an 
infant was not looked upon as an absurdity or an 
impossibility, even of one who lived to grow up. 
The only question that can arise is, not whether 
infants are capable of a principle of spiritual life 
from the nature of the case, but whether all saving 
grace is of the nature of spiritual life? and whether, 
as a fact, the Scriptures do teach that all children 
are actually in a gracious state, a state of salvation, 
by the atonement? These points are sufficiently ex- 
panded in the body of this work, where I have en- 
deavored to present them with proper definition on 
Scriptural authority, and in their logical sequence. 

The reasons for undertaking this work, or, at least, 
for giving it so much of a doctrinal character, will 
appear more fully upon the perusal of the first chap- 
ter. It seemed necessary to say so much as that as 
an apology for undertaking the task. It is to be 
regretted that the Arminian view — I can think of no 
better designation to give it just here — on this sub- 
ject has not received a greater share of attention 
heretofore with reference especially to its Scriptural 
foundation. By this test, and this only, we consent 
to stand or fall. If God has spoken directly upon 
the subject, his words must decide the question, and 



PREFACE. 7 

the moaning of those words is the doctrine we would 
adopt. If he has spoken, on the other hand, only 
indirectly, or by way of laying down principles from 
which we are left to draw our doctrines by a proc- 
ess of deduction, still, this light must be accepted as 
the highest and the only authority legitimate to the 
case, and the correctness of our logical processes 
must be the guarantee of our truthfulness of doctrine. 
We can not admit human opinion, not even that of 
the early fathers, nor the consentaneous practice of 
the Church, nor the power of traditional belief, to 
come in here with any claim of authority to decide 
the question. We can not rest the question with an 
appeal to creeds, catechisms, confessions, and pro- 
tests. The belief or practice of the Church can never 
prove a doctrine to be true, nor can the contrary 
prove it false. Traditional faith and practice, reach- 
ing up to a very high antiquity, may be entitled to very 
serious consideration before they are rejected; but 
their truth and obligation must rest solely on the 
Word of God — the Word to be interpreted, like any 
other document, history, or code, by the laws of lan- 
guage. I am the more explicit in laying down these 
trite principles, knowing the subtile influence of theo- 
logical systems, and educational belief, and conven- 
tional habits, in disturbing the orderly processes of 
the understanding. 



8 PREFACE. 

3. The effect of baptism on the recipient lias been 
abundantly difficult to define by those who have been 
tinged with the patristic idea of the efficacy of the 
sacraments, or the Augustinian doctrine of election. 
The Romish doctrine that the sacraments are saving, 
ex opere operato, need not be mentioned here ; but of 
the Protestants, some believe that the Holy Spirit 
and the water of baptism concur, so that the person 
is uniformly and certainly regenerated, unless some 
bar be presented to the Spirit's operation — but as 
infants are incapable of offering an obstacle, they are 
therefore regenerated at baptism. Others hold that 
regeneration sometimes takes place, but not always, 
and there is no method of knowing when the sacra- 
ment is immediately effectual. By some it is held 
that the decree of non-election annuls, or holds in 
suspense the efficacy of the sacrament, but that in 
elect children it always regenerates. Others have 
held that baptism has the efficacy to remit original 
sin, even in the non-elect. Others, still, hold that 
no moral effect is presently realized by baptism to 
the infant, but his baptism has the virtue of a cove- 
nant, or indenture, whereby he is admitted to a claim 
and heirship of the promise, which is fulfilled only in 
mature life, when he repents and believes. Another 
sentiment is, that spiritual regeneration begins at bap- 
tism, and is finished only at mature age through the 



PREFACE. 3 

personal faith of the recipient. Others again hold 
that savins "race comes to the child — to all children 
alike — by the atonement of Christ, and they are bap- 
tized because they are thus saved. In this diversity 
no Church, except the Arminian branch, has a set- 
tled doctrine as to the state of all infants prior to 
baptism, nor as to the precise effects of baptism on 
infants. The Church of England regards it as an 
evidence of true religious liberty of faith guaranteed 
to her members, that her formularies no where as- 
sume to decide upon the condition of infants prior to 
baptism, or of such as die without baptism, or the exact 
effects of baptism on them, and that they may be so 
construed as to admit to her communion and fellow- 
ship alike the opposite extremes of the Calvinistic 
and Arminian faith. In this wide realm which she 
has thus left open to speculation, the blades of theo- 
logical controversy have gleamed for four hundred 
years, and the combatants are still in the field to de- 
termine the momentous questions, whether her articles 
and formularies are to be interpreted from the Calvin- 
istic or Arminian stand-point, and whether the patris- 
tic or Frotestant theory of the sacraments shall pre- 
vail. In the midst of all this conflict of opinion, and 
this negation of opinion, how grateful to faith and 
how consonant to all our a priori views of justice 
and fitness, and of our exegetical scannings of the 



10 PEEFACE. 

Divine and Infallible Word, to be certified that all in- 
fants are alike, in the sight of God and of redeeming 
love, in a state of grace, of initial salvation, by virtue 
not of the sacraments, but of the atonement, of which 
baptism is the appointed sign and the covenant seal! 
To settle this point is one object of this book. 

4. It can not be disguised that the manner in which 
the word "sacrament" has been used and defined has 
contributed largely to confuse and mislead the mind, 
and to prolong controversy. The word, which is of 
Latin origin, is not found in Scripture, but belongs 
to the theological terminology of the second and sub- 
sequent centuries. It corresponds to the Greek word 
puffzyptov — mystery — which is used to signify any 
thing hidden, not fully comprehended, not fully re- 
vealed, or exhibited only in types and symbols. It 
is not of the word as a generic title to the two char- 
acteristic institutions of the Christian religion, nor of 
its proper theological definition, that I object, but of 
that technical use of it which has led, and by all 
laws of grammatical connection must lead, to the 
doctrine that water-baptism is the established channel 
and means of regeneration. Hooker, in his Ecclesi- 
astical Polity, thus defines sacrament: "Tins," says 
he, "is the necessity of sacraments. That saving 
grace, which Christ originally is, or hath for the 
general good of his whole Church, by sacraments he 



PREFACE. 11 

deriveth unto every member thereof. By baptism, 
therefore, Ave receive Jesus Christ, and from him the 
saving grace which is proper unto baptism." The 
regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit, and the 
outward administration of water by the priest, have 
been so conjoined as to constitute two necessary and 
correlative parts of the same transaction. The sacra- 
ment is thus made to be a unit, comprehending the 
two fractions, water and the Holy Ghost; and, in the 
interchangeable and free language of divines, regen- 
eration is equally a predicate of baptism or of the 
Holy Ghost; baptism, in sacramental language, being 
conjoined, "as a means to the end," with regenera- 
tion. From this rigid construction of terms, this 
pressing of figurative language beyond its measure, 
which often amounts to little else than a fraudulent 
use of language, the subjects of the moral condition 
of our race anterior to baptism, and of the efficacy 
of the ordinance, have been often and grievously mis- 
judged. "What Schleiermacher says — quoted by Ha- 
genbach — of adopting a theological term not known 
in Scripture, and then appealing to it as if it were 
inspired authority, is true: "The common mode of 
commencing with this so-called general idea, and ex- 
plaining it, serves to confirm the erroneous opinion 
that it is a proper doctrinal idea involving something 
essential to Christianity, and that baptism and the 



12 PREFACE. 

Lord's Supper are of so much importance, principally 
because this idea is therein realized." To the free 
use of the word sacrament, as synonymous with the 
New-Testament use of the word mystery, or as set- 
ting forth a spiritual and divine truth under an out- 
ward symbol, we offer no objection — nay, this is our 
faith; but to the glosses and additions which the- 
ological controversy has foisted into dogma we do 
object. In other words, we object to bringing in a 
foreign term not found in Scripture, and hence not 
appropriated by the Holy Spirit, as a generic title to 
the two Christian ordinances, and giving it a tech- 
nical definition — a definition which rests upon no 
higher authority than catechistic and symbolic form- 
ularies — and then arguing from such definition as 
from a settled theological dogma. It is but an in- 
sidious method of "teaching for doctrines the com- 
mandments of men." I will abide by the sacraments 
as Christ left them, and as he defined them, and I do 
not object to the use of words not found in Scripture 
when their theological definitions do not carry me 
outside the limit of Christ's words. But, however 
venerable the word sacrament is, we can not take 
with it all the glosses and definitions of catechists 
and divines. We take it only to the extent of the 
import of the original institutions it denotes. It is a 
sign, and seal, and pledge when received according to 



PREFACE. 13 

the covenant spirit of the ordinance. All beyond this 
is human addition, not dogma. 

5. The progress of opinion, and of revolutions of 
opinion, is slow, especially where the change pro- 
poses to uproot a long-established, traditional faith. 
It must be considered that for twelve hundred years 
the Church had been misguided in her notions con- 
cerning the efficacy of the sacraments and forms of 
worship. The conversion of Europe to Christianity, 
after the age of Constantine, was not generally a 
spiritual work, conducted upon the principle of our 
modern missionary movements, radically changing the 
individual heart from darkness to light, and from the 
power of Satan to God; but rather a political meas- 
ure, changing the forms of the public superstition, 
but not implanting the clear principles of Christianity 
by an inward experience of its power to regenerate 
the soul. Christianity, hence, became a compromise 
between heathenism and the Gospel of Christ. The 
Teutonic and Gallic nations could easily part with 
their old divinities, and adopt the images of Christ 
and the apostles, of the Virgin Mary, saints, and 
martyrs in their stead, and substitute for their my- 
thology the legends of the saints, when the reasons 
for the change were backed up by the terror of a 
conqueror's sword, or the largesses of political and 
temporal good in this life, and eternal life in the 



14 PREFACE. 

world to come. The change of national religion be- 
came thus often the specification of a treaty -with the 
chief of a barbarous people. Do men wonder that 
continental Europe has been so long in coming to the 
"truth as it is in Jesus?'"' The reason is obvious — 
they hare never yet been radically converted to God; 
then* ideas of religion are yet outward. The' prin- 
ciples of the great redemption, apart from outward 
ordinances, and the true province and design of those 
ordinances, have not yet been fully comprehended. 
The gross sensuousness of heathenism has never been 
thrown off. - The Lutheran Reformation broke the 
force of these superstitious chains so far as the Papal 
authority was concerned; but it were to require too 
much from a single generation, or from a single im- 
pulse of reformation, to expect that under the guiding 
light of the cardinal principles of that Reformation, 
and from the points of issue with Romanism which 
gave it birth, and shape, and character, the details 
of Christian doctrine could be settled, or the shackles 
of antiquity entirely thrown off. Wherever the Ref- 
ormation was taken in hand and conducted by Govern- 
ment, and hence entered more or less into questions 
of State policy, the separation from Rome, both doc- 
trinally and ecclesiastically, was more gentle and quiet ; 
but where the people undertook the work, as in Swit- 
zerland and Scotland, or where it was the result of a 



PREFACE. 15 

popular conviction of truth, it became more radical 
and complete. But whoever will look into the genius 
of those times; the early induction of the reformers 
themselves into the principles of the scholastic the- 
ology; the condition of the masses as to general in- 
telligence ; the inveterate rooting of hereditary preju- 
dice; the general type and spirit of civilization, of 
philosophy and science; the sphere and objects of 
theological study; the method of conducting relig- 
ious controversy; the partial enjoyment of liberty of 
speech; and the fact that the symbols of faith, the 
general types of thought, the fixed forms of ecclesi- 
asticism, and the "just circumference" of orthodoxy, 
as now held, were fixed then; in short, that the 
period of the Reformation was the embryonic stage 
of the modern Protestant Church — will not wonder 
that we have retained some things which have come 
down to us from a Papal antiquity through our ven- 
erable reformers, or that we have been so slow to 
detect or openly cast off certain relics of prescriptive 
authority, where the Word of God alone is our only 
sure guide. I need only appeal to the history of the 
controversies on the effects of infant baptism, and 
the moral condition of infants anterior to baptism, in 
justification of these remarks. Still, no age since 
the apostles ever offered a more favorable moment 
than that of the Reformation for the great work of 



16 PREFACE. 

reshaping the faith and form of the visible Church. 
It was an age, as Dr. Hagenbach describes it, "of 
polemico- ecclesiastical symbolism — the conflict of con- 
fessions of faith." The outline of doctrine was sharply 
drawn. Men were reverent and earnest in their 
beliefs, and attached high importance to objective 
standards, or symbols of faith. The chiseling, and 
fashioning, and polishing of creeds was in accordance 
with the genius of the times, and no less impelled by 
the exigency of controversy. The Arminian principle 
has the repute of abating the authority of symbolical 
works somewhat, and giving a new "impulse to exe- 
getical investigations, to independent hermeneutical 
labors, and to the speculative treatment of theology," 
by carrying its appeal more directly to Scripture and 
reason. To balance a just respect for symbols of faith 
and traditional authority with the habit of original 
investigation of the Divine Word is our only safe 
method. 

But the danger in coming off from ultra- Church 
lies in the tendency to go over to anti- Church. The 
danger in rejecting the Patristic, Papal, and Tracta- 
rian theory of the sacraments is in passing to the 
opposite extreme — the lightly esteeming them, the 
practical neglect of them, or the using them with 
little faith and reverence. Rationalism is but a re- 
action of excessive faith — a faith not founded in Rev- 



PREFACE. 17 

elation, .and hence not in principles of right reason. 
Those two extremes are equally to be avoided — are 
equally dangerous. Baptism gives visibility to the 
Church, not spirituality. It is a solemn recognition 
of the faithful, not the producing nor the instrumental 
cause of the new life. It is the seal, the visible bond 
of the covenant. But it does not stand related to 
regeneration as the formal and authorized date of that 
work, nor as "the means to the end." The Church 
has a spiritual character, and an outward, visible, and 
organic form. The life exists before the organic form ; 
the thing signified before the sign. I do not depre- 
ciate the sacraments by denying the inseparability of 
saving grace to them, nor by denying that baptism is 
at any time the appointed channel of saving grace to 
the child. It is not honoring Christ by making more 
of his institutions than he has commanded; but I 
honor them when I understand their design and use, 
and reverently, and faithfully, and with a believing 
heart submit to them. 

6. Although the following work has not been un- 
dertaken in behalf of any theological system, yet the 
Arminian view of the subjects discussed is adopted, 
not from the force of prescriptive authority, as I trust, 
but from conviction. In the Discipline of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church, wherein her articles of faith, 

rituals, and Church government are fully laid down, 

2 



18 PREFACE. 

it is stated that "all children, by virtue of the uncon- 
ditional benefits of the atonement, are members of 
the kingdom of heaven, and, therefore, graciously en- 
titled to baptism ; but as infant baptism contemplates 
a course of religious instruction and discipline, it is 
expected of all parents or guardians "who present 
their children for baptism, that they use all diligence 
in bringing them up in conformity to the Word of 
God, and they should be solemnly admonished of this 
obligation, and earnestly exhorted to faithfulness 
therein." The doctrine and directions of this brief 
but comprehensive extract declare all that I have 
aimed to set forth in the following pages, and happy 
should I be if what I have written shall contribute to 
give doctrinal clearness and practical force to the im- 
portant section on the " Relation of Baptized Children 
to the Church," from which the above extract is 
taken. 

7. It is proper to state that I have freely availed 
myself of the aid offered in the elaborate " History of 
Infant Baptism, by Wm. Wall, M. A.," etc., Oxford 
edition; and of the equally elaborate and important 
work on the " Doctrine of the Church of England as 
to the Effect of Baptism in the case of Infants, by 
Wm. Goode, M. A., F. S. A., Rector of St. Antho- 
lin, London." In these works, so broad in their 
range and comprehension, so ample in their authori- 



PREFACE. 19 

tie?, and so candid and profound in their discussion, 
not only the subjects of the "doctrine" and "his- 
tory" of infant baptism, but, by necessary correla- 
tion, the doctrine-history of the moral condition of 
infants before baptism, the views of our early Protest- 
ant reformers, and of the Church of England are 
fully brought out. In connection with the above I 
have found in Dr. Hagenbach's Text-Book of the 
History of Doctrines — Dr. H. B. Smith's edition — 
some valuable suggestions. I have also taken some 
extracts from Bishop BrownelTs Commentary on the 
Book of Common Prayer, assuming that not only do 
the authorities he quotes prove what their own senti- 
ments are, but, being adopted by him in the light of 
a " commentary," do also show the meaning he would 
attach, and which is commonly attached to those por- 
tions of the Prayer Book for whose illustration he 
cites them. The German work of Dr. Wiggers, on 
Augustinianism and Pelagianism, translated by Prof. 
R. Emerson, Andover, has offered its aid on points 
involved in that early and most important contro- 
versy, whose influence reaches down through all ages 
of the Church to our own times, and still powerfully 
holds sway over the forms of modern symbolism. 
The "Confessions of Augustine," from which I have 
quoted, is the Andover edition, edited by Prof. Shedd, 
a work at once curious, devout, and profound, and a 



20 PREFACE. 

singularly valuable relic of early times, "which the ac- 
complished editor has given in an attractive form to 
the English public. It is valuable as a key to the 
inner life of theology in the fourth century. It is 
not necessary here to make further reference to the 
sources of my information, as they have already been 
sufficiently indicated from time to time in the progress 
of this work, which now, with prayer for the accom- 
panying blessing of God, is committed to the reader. 

E. (3r. HlBBARD. 

Clifton Springs, Ontario Co., N. Y., 
Nov. 4, 1863. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface Page 3 

CHAPTER I. 

HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 

Doctrine history — Our argument Scriptural — Doctrine not new — 
Object practical — Two causes have embarrassed the doctrine of infant 
salvation — Baptismal regeneration — Early doctrine of the Church — 
Ambrose — African Church — African Synod of A. D. 418 — Augustine — 
Tertullian — Fulgentius — Pope Gregory — Peter Lombard — The School- 
men — Lay baptism in the English Church — Geographical theory of 
hades — Apology for the ancient Church — Augustine's Confessions— 
Wickliffe — John Huss — Protestant Reformers — Doctrine of the Church 
of England — Lutheran Church — Reformed Church — Dr. Woods — 
Methodist Episcopal Church — Special election — Arminian contro- 
versy — Dr. Wall on Church of England doctrine — Bishop Jeremy 
Taylor — Presbyterian Confession of Eaith Pages 27-69 

CHAPTER II. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 

Importance of a right estimate of our moral condition by nature — 
Infidel theory — Scriptural sense of our corruption — Various theories 
of depravity and sin — The true statement of the doctrine — Bible ar- 
gument — Views of Pelagius — Of Augustine — Of Arminius — Peculiari- 
ties of Biblical psychology — Church of England doctrine — Jeremy 
Taylor on the doctrine of Christian antiquity — Final statement — 
President Edwards's views 70-107 

CHAPTER III. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 

Children are reckoned to Christ — Proof from Rom. v, 12-21 — Proof 
from Matt, xviii, 1-14— Proof from Matt, x, 40-42 -From Matt. 

xix ; 14 108-151 

21 



22 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST CONTINUED. 

Recapitulation of the Bible argument — Are infants regenerate ? — 
Various significations of the word — Bishop Hopkins's view — Dr. 
Wall — Dr. Waterland — Archbishop Seeker — Archbishop Usher — 
Bishop Bedell — Mr. Goode — Mr. Wesley — Richard Watson — Luther — 
Chrysostom — Gregory Nazianzen — Ccelestius — Dr. Some — The ques- 
tion stated — Meaning of yevvaw, gennao — John iii, 5 — Regeneration 
and life often synonymous — Use of #«m'£w, to illuminate — Dr. Bomber- 
ger on infant regeneration — Regeneration not baptism — Spiritual — 
Regeneration and conversion defined — New creation — Children capa- 
ble of a principle of divine life — Bishop Beveridge — Bishop Daven- 
ant — Bishop Taylor — Witsius — Dean Comber — Early Protestant di- 
vines — The subject again stated — St. Augustine — Bishop Taylor — 
Moral state of infants dying or living, the same Pages 152-197 

CHAPTER V. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO THE FAMILY AND CHURCH. 

SECTION I. 
NATURE AND FORCE OP THE CHURCH RELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Church relation defined — Object of Church instrumentality — Who 
are legitimate members — Eph. i, 9, 10 — Faith not essential per se — 1 
Cor. vii, 14 — Apostolic Church practice — Post-apostolic Church prac- 
tice — Nature and force of infant Church membership — Denomina- 
tional Church membership — Distinction between infant and adult 
Church relation — Incapacity to fulfill all the duties of the Church 
relation no bar to membership 198-214 

SECTION II. 

FAMILY CONSTITUTION — ITS VESTED POWERS AND RELIGIOUS END. 

Two stages of Church life — Family Church— life of childhood — 
Family a primal Church agency — Origin of the family institution — 
Historically the oldest form of Church life — Vested powers of the 
family headship — Three principles in the family constitution : the 
oneness of husband and wife, authority of the parents and sub- 
mission of the children — Analogies of nature — Man's higher des- 
tiny — Duty of exercising parental authority — Scripture precepts — 
Example of Eli — Of David — Duty to servants and strangers in the 
family „ 214-239 



CONTENTS. 23 

SECTION III. 

FAMILY INSTITUTION, CONTINUED — BIBLE VIEW OF ITS RELIGIOUS END. 

All things point to a religious end — Marriage has a religious sanc- 
tity — Our Savior's decision — Doctrine of the Christian Church — Mai. 
ii, 15 — All covenant grace primarily given to the family — Antedilu- 
vian apostasy due to family corruption — Old Testament law— Its re- 
ligious principle binding and vital now — Apostolic teaching — Religion 
first binding on the parent, and through the parent to reach the 
child Pages 239-252 

SECTION IV. 

FIRST STAGE OF CHURCH LIFE REALIZED IN THE FAMILY PARENTAL 

AND FILIAL DUTY. 

The family a normal Church agency — Proved historically — Proved 
from the tenor of religious precept to both parent and child — The law 
of the New Testament as to which parent should claim the religious 
training of the child, where one is an unbeliever — Rights of the 
mother — Religious family life among the early Christians — Attempts 
to overthrow the family institution— Heathenism — Monachism, and 
celibacy of clergy — Rev. John Fletcher — Communism and Socialism — ■ 
Rousseau — Foundling hospitals — Robert Owen — Fourier — Christianity 
our only hope 252-283 

SECTION V. 

THE RELIGIOUS ORDER OF THE FAMILY FUNDAMENTAL TO THE GOSPEL 
SCHEME — ITS RESTITUTION PROMISED. 

Our argument stated — Precept of the Decalogue — Reaffirmed in 
New Testament — Heathenism destroys natural affection — Law oi 
Triptolemus — Mai. iv, 6 — Quoted by the son of Sirach, showing how 
deeply the Jewish mind was affected by it — Quoted by the angel as 
the first reiteration of Old Testament prophecy in the New Testa- 
ment — Quoted by our Lord — By Peter — Christ defends the family ob- 
ligations against the traditionists 284-297 

SECTION VI. 

SECOND STAGE OF FAMILY CHURCH-LIFE — TEACHING BY PUBLIC INSTITU- 
TIONS. 

Second stage of family Church-life defined — Examples, Passover 
institution — Unleavened bread — Redemption of the first-born — Monu- 
ments at Gilgal — General statement of Deut. vi, 20-25 — Of Hezekiah — 
Of Asaph — Jewish law for admitting a child to the Passover — Point 
of the argument under this head stated 297-304 



24 CONTENTS. 

SECTION VII. 

SECOND STAGE OF FAMILY CHURCH-LIFE, CONTINUED — DUTIES OP CHURCH 
OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. 

Argument stated — Proved by Christ's charge to the apostles — To 
Peter personally — Paul's example — John's address to little chil- 
dren — Irenseus — Solomon — David — Influence of Christian oversight 
upon the child — Early practice of the Methodist Episcopal Church — 
John Wesley Pages 304-317 

CHAPTER VI. 

DATE AXD EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 
Human responsibility — Three principles laid down — Time for be- 
ginning religious teaching — Isa. xxviii, 9 — Ps. viii, 2 — Eph. vi, 4 — 
First effect of infant instruction — Force of the phrase " bringing 
up " — Greatness of the work — Prevenient grace — Religious suscepti- 
bility of childhood — Can the child grow up without forfeiting infantile 
justification ? — Religious capacity of children — De Quincey — Simplic- 
ity of faith suited to childhood — Of prayer — Of religious experience — 
Early Christians— St. Basil 318-361 

CHAPTER VII. 

EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY, AND THE EARLY RELIGIOUS CAPA- 
BILITIES OF CHILDHOOD. 

All theory to be tested by practice — Example of Jesus — His child- 
hood life illustrates the possibilities of all childhood, through grace — 
His character under twelve years — At twelve years — After twelve 
years — His junior life falls within the capabilities of our nature — Ex- 
ample of Samuel — Of Timothy — Some of the prophets — Polycarp — 
Origen — Augustine — Chrysostom — Lady Huntington — Dr. Dodd- 
ridge — Rev. C. Gridley — Hester Ann Rogers — Bishop Hedding — Force 
of early training in Papists, pagans, Mohammedans — Charlotte 
Elizabeth — Cases noted by Mr. Wesley — Cases of personal observa- 
tion — Rev. Ira Fairbank — Willie Stacy — Daughter of Dr. Thomaa 
Scott— Children of the millennium 362-390 

CHAPTER VIII. 

DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN THE DEVOTIONAL AND EXPERIMENTAL CUL- 
TURE OF THE CHILDREN. 

Painful absence of our children from our Church altars and fellow- 
ships — Want of confidence in the professions of childhood piety — 



CONTENTS. 25 

Rev. Mr. Towsley — Rev. E. Hebard — Children brought up with the 
impression and belief they are outside the Church's pale — The moral 
influence of this practice — Reason why the Church is so coy of child- 
hood profession — Characteristics of childhood piety — God's sympathy 
in childhood wants and infirmities — Error of testing moral principles 
by the apparent greatness of the circumstances which develop them — 
Catechumens of the early Church — Methodist Episcopal Church Dis- 
cipline — Mr. Wesley precedes Robert Raikes — Some further provision 
for the children needed — Experience of a pastor — Sphere of the Sun- 
day school — A new medial provision needed between the Sunday 
school and the Church — Excellences and defects of the Methodist 

Episcopal Church Discipline on the subject Pages 391-411 

3 






THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER I. 

HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 

Doctrine history — Our argument Scriptural — Doctrine not new — 
Object practical — Two causes have embarrassed the doctrine of 
infant salvation — Baptismal regeneration — Early doctrine of the 
Church — Ambrose — African Church — African Synod of A. D. 418 — 
Augustine — Tertullian — Fulgentius — Pope Gregory — Peter Lom- 
bard — The schoolmen — Lay baptism in the English Church — Hades — 
Apology for the ancient Churches — Augustine's confessions — Wick- 
liflfe — John Huss — Protestant reformers — Doctrine of Church of En- 
gland — Lutheran Church — Reformed Church — Dr. Woods — Methodist 
Episcopal Church — Special election — Arminian controversy — Dr. 
Wall on the Church of England doctrine — Bishop Taylor — Presby- 
terian Confession of Faith. 

1. The history of doctrine is most instructive. 
It is the history of the human mind in its search after 
truth, its struggles against error, its aspirations after 
the higher life, often, too, of its gropings and wander- 
ings when it has lost the path of Revelation and 
sound philosophy, and the light of Scriptural exege- 
sis. Every doctrine now settled in the faith of ortho- 
dox Christians has been, at some period, the subject 
of violent controversy, rescued from the hands of er- 

rorists and the toils of sophistry and faction only by 

27 



28 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the martyr-like integrity of those who, in all ages, 
have been raised up to "earnestly contend for the 
faith once delivered to the saints." Truths, too, 
which were once settled in the faith of the Church 
have been, and still are, subject to the disturbing cur- 
rents of doubt, induced by new theories of doctrine, 
or of "philosophy falsely so called." The price of 
orthodoxy and established faith is "eternal vigilance" 
in the exercise of the Christian armor "upon the 
right hand and upon the left." Prescriptive faith is 
not always the " ancient way," the " way everlast- 
ing," nor are new views of Christian doctrine always 
the result of a deeper and clearer insight into Divine 
things than the fathers enjoyed. A proper respect 
must be paid to antiquity, but mostly as proving the 
simple fact that the ancients did understand Holy 
Scripture in a given way, not as proving that way to 
be necessarily right or Scriptural. The Holy Scrip- 
tures alone must be accepted, according to the uni- 
versal Protestant principle, as the only rule, and the 
sufficient rule, of faith and practice. The uses and 
the abuses of an appeal to patristic authority and 
traditional faith in general, are to be carefully studied 
and kept in view. And while we thankfully admit 
that an unbroken chain of orthodox faith has been 
transmitted to us from the apostles, and this channel 
of orthodoxy is distinguishable through all ages, yet 
the Bible only is our test, as it is to us the source, 
of infallible truth, to which the faith of the Church, 
both ancient and modern, must be brought. The 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 29 

opinions of men, when offered as religious dogmas, 
can have no value any further than they are grounded 
upon the "Word of God. 

In our search for truth, therefore, the first ques- 
tion that must be asked is not, "What have the 
fathers believed before us ?" but, " What do the Scrip- 
tures teach?" All legitimate investigation is, hence, 
original investigation. Discoveries in religious truth, 
if such a word be at all admissible, are not advances 
made upon the original revelations of Holy Scripture, 
but discoveries made upon our own previous false 
methods of interpreting Scripture, or our false meth- 
ods of reasoning from Scripture premises. Holy 
Scripture, objectively considered, is a system of im- 
mutable truth, which can neither be added to nor di- 
minished; but Holy Scripture, subjectively considered, 
is simply the variable limit of our perceptions and 
understanding of that truth, and is as variable as the 
history of theological opinion. 

We admire the stern integrity of our old Protestant 
reformers. In the prefatory remarks to the " Order 
and Form of Baptism, inserted in the Brandenberg 
and Nuremberg Liturgy of 1553," it is premised that, 
"in all ecclesiastical usages, we must diligently mark 
what God has commanded and instituted, and what 
men have added thereto, in order that we may hold 
the Divine as the essential part, and diligently prac- 
tice it; and, on the other hand, judge the human ad- 
ditions, whether or not they are things indifferent, 
and if indifferent, whether they are also useful or not, 



30 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

in order that what is contrary to God's Word, or 
otherwise unprofitable, may be done away." 

The principles here laid down are the only safe 
guide to the Church of God. If she would be sound 
in doctrine her theology must be more Biblical than 
dogmatic, more exegetical than traditional. If she 
would be evangelical in piety, her faith must rest more 
on conviction than prescriptive authority, and if she 
would preserve the ordinances in their primitive effi- 
ciency, she must beware of all human additions. 

In the following pages we do not propose to ad- 
vance any new doctrine unknown to the Church in 
former ages, but to rescue, if possible, an old and 
most precious truth from the doubts and obscurities 
which disputatious theology and a false theory of doc- 
trine have thrown around it. Our argument is purely 
Biblical; the Bible alone can settle the question of 
the moral state of infants. Our references to the his- 
tory of the doctrine are merely to indicate the track 
of opinion, not to decide the argument. 

2. The doctrine in question is not of merely-specu- 
lative importance, but is a fundamental truth broadly 
underlying and giving character to the entire system 
of evangelical theology. The views which a man en- 
tertains concerning our race, that is, our common na- 
ture, prior to all responsible action, will determine 
his views of the character and office of Christ, and 
the whole import of the Gospel scheme of grace and 
instrumentalities. 

Then, again, the views which one entertains of the 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 31 

moral condition of childhood will, more than any- 
thing else, tend to shape his whole practical system 
of training and culture of the child. Among evan- 
gelical Christians how sadly has doubt respecting the 
extent and efficacy of grace to all childhood enervated 
faith in the prayers and labors of parents for their 
offspring, and wrought confusion, distress, and defeat ! 
In this, as in all enterprises intrusted to human judg- 
ment and accountability, men must have a settled 
doctrinal basis to rest upon, and be well assured that 
their efforts are in the direction of the Divine order 
and purpose, and the subject of Divine promise and 
reward, in order that their work may be wrought in 
the heartiness and perseverance of faith. It is faith 
that parents need — strong, living, patient, intelligent 
faith in the TVord and promise of God, in order to 
fulfill their duty to their children throughout the suc- 
cessive years and the ever-varying scenes, and wants, 
and caprices of junior life. They wish their children 
to be religious, they strive to teach and guide them 
in Christian paths ; but is their work wrought in 
faith ? Do they look straightforward to results, 
promised and assured by the Word of God, with the 
calm confidence of the husbandman who "ploweth 
in hope," and "waiteth for the precious fruit of the 
earth, and hath long patience for it till he receive the 
early and latter rain?"'' Xothing can give this abid- 
ing confidence, this habit of faith in the work of 
bringing up children in the "nurture of the Lord," 
but broad, and clear, and settled views of the 



I 



32 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

true relation which children hold to Christ and 
his Gospel. If our practical treatment of children is 
not in harmony with the laws of their moral and 
gracious condition, and the Divine plan concerning 
them, all analogy and all experience assure us that 
defeat must follow. No good intentions of the par- 
ent can compensate for a doctrinal error here. The 
hope of the husbandman is warranted only by an in- 
telligent and accurate adjustment of his labors to the 
condition of the earth and the congeniality of external 
nature. If success is not warranted by the laws of 
God in nature and providence, his hope is futile, and 
no honesty of purpose on his part can atone for the 
blunder and retrieve the fortunes of the year. It is 
so in all our moral and religious concerns. It is the 
object of this work to ascertain the Scriptural doc- 
trine of the moral condition of infants, and the Provi- 
dential purpose in regard to them, and to encourage 
faith and labor in their early religious training, suit- 
able to their condition and Providential destiny. 

3. Two causes, more than all others, have con- 
tributed to embarrass the doctrine of infant salvation, 
and its salutary moral effects on the culture and des- 
tiny of childhood. The one is the doctrine of bap- 
tismal regeneration, and the other that of special 
election. As to the former, the ancient Christians 
interpreted the words of our Lord to Nicodemus— 
John iii, 5 — "Except a man be born of water and of 
the Holy Ghost, he can not enter into the kingdom of 
God/' in their literal sense, as denoting, 1st, water bap- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 33 

tism: and 2d, the necessity of baptism in order to 
salvation. The order was construed as peremptory, 
universal, and literal ; and to the letter of this statute, 
thus construed, they rigidly adhered. In all their ar- 
guments on the necessity and efficacy of baptism, this 
text was the grand starting-point and original author- 
ity. From the early Church this doctrine passed 
down through the Papal and Greek Churches, and, 
with some modification, into the earlier Protestant 
branches — the Lutheran, the Calvinistic, and the 
Church of England. The chief exceptions which 
were made by the early Church were in favor of mar- 
tyrs, those who died for the truth, who, by some ac- 
cident, had not been baptized, and those who, having 
come to some knowledge of Christ, and had formed a 
purpose of baptism at the first opportunity, may have 
died, nevertheless, unbaptized. In such cases they 
did allow that the letter of the law might be waived 
in consideration of the spirit of the law having been 
fulfilled. Hagenbach, speaking of the sentiment of 
the Church on this point, from the eighth to the six- 
teenth centuries, says : " In opposition to earlier di- 
vines, later theologians — for example, Bernard, of 
Clairval, Peter Lombard, and Thomas Aquinas — main- 
tained that in such cases — as those who by circum- 
stances are providentially prevented from being bap- 
tized — the will alone was sufficient." And this 
judgment of charity has since prevailed. Yet, in 
regard to infants, a strange perversity of doctrine ob- 
tained, as shocking to all our sense of natural justice 



34 TIIE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

as it was hostile to the genius and letter of Revela- 
tion. To doom an infant to eternal perdition for 
want of water baptism, which it was physically be- 
yond his power to secure, seems to us incredible ; 
and to do it on the authority of the rigid literality of 
our Lord's words to Nicodemus, above quoted, is a 
specimen, among many others, of the faulty and often 
absurd and puerile theory of Scripture interpretation 
which obtained then. Many, indeed, were shocked at 
the consequences to which their relentless interpreta- 
tion led them, and started back. These, yielding to 
humanity and natural reason against their own the- 
ory, invented a middle state — a limbus puerorum — of 
milder and rather negative punishment, to which un- 
baptized infants, when saved at all from final ruin, 
might go. But to " enter into the kingdom of God " 
without baptism was held on all hands to be impos- 
sible. St. Ambrose, A. D. 374, referring to Christ's 
words — John iii, 5 — says, "You see he excepts no 
person, not an infant, not one that is hindered by an 
unavoidable accident. But suppose that such have 
the freedom from punishment — which is not clear — 
yet I question whether they shall have the honor of 
the kingdom." "No person," says he elsewhere, 
" comes to the kingdom of heaven without baptism." 
The doctrine that infants, dying without baptism, 
were lost, prevailed in the African Church, says Prof. 
Schaff, since the time of Cyprian, or A. D. 2$0. In 
the General Synod of African Bishops held at Car- 
thage, A. D. 418, they thus enacted in their fourtb 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 35 

canon against the Pelagians: "If any one says that 
because the Lord has said, 'In my Father's house are 
many mansions,' it is to be understood that there is a 
place in the kingdom of heaven, or a place any where 
at all, in which children are happy who leave this 
world without baptism — without which they can not 
enter into the kingdom of heaven, which is eternal 
life — let him be anathema. For since the Lord has 
said, '"Whoever is not born again of water and the 
Spirit can not enter into the kingdom of God,' what 
orthodox man can doubt that he that does not deserve 
to be a joint-heir with Christ has his part with the 
devil? He that does not stand on the right hand 
will doubtless be on the left." Augustine, A. D. 388, 
says: "Whoever should affirm that infants which die 
without partaking of the sacrament [baptism] shall be 
quickened in Christ, would both go against the apos- 
tles' preaching and also would condemn the universal 
Church." He says that even the Pelagians, over- 
borne by the united faith of all Christian people, "do 
own, without any tergiversation, that no infint that 
is not born again of water and of the Spirit does 
enter into the kingdom of God." Tertullian takes it 
for a standing rule, that "without baptism there is no 
salvation." Fulgentius, A. D. 410, says of unbap- 
tized infants : " Whether they die in their mothers' 
womb or after they are born, one must hold for cer- 
tain and undoubted that they are to be tormented 
with the everlasting punishment of eternal fire; . . . 
to suffer the endless torments of hell, where the devil 






36 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

with his angels are to burn for evermore." And in 
one sermon of Augustine, where he was hardly pressed 
by Pelagius, that father says: "Our Lord will come 
to judge the quick and the dead, and he will make 
two sides — the right and the left. To those on the 
left hand he will say, Depart into everlasting fire; to 
those on the right, Come, receive the kingdom. He 
calls one the kingdom, the other the condemnation of 
the devil. There is no middle place where you can 
put infants; ... so that when you confess the infant 
will not be in the kingdom, you must acknowledge he 
will be in everlasting fire." At other times he makes 
a middle state for unbaptized infants, where they " will 
not be punished with so great pain " as actual sinners. 
"Who can doubt," he says, "but that infants unbap- 
tized, who have only original sin, and are not loaded 
with any sins of their own, will be in the gentlest 
condemnation of all?" 

Pope Gregory says, A. D. 600 : " Some are taken 
from this present life before they have any good or 
ill deserts by their own deeds : and having not the 
sacrament of salvation [baptism] for their deliverance 
from original sin, though they have done nothing of 
their own here, yet these come to torments; . . . 
perpetua tormenta percipiunt — they undergo eternal 
torments." 

These sentiments obtained for a long time; but 
about A. D. 1150, Peter Lombard, father of the 
scholastic theology, taught that the proper punish- 
ment for original sin, where there was no actual sin, 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 37 

was " the punishment of loss — loss of heaven and the 
sight of God — but not the punishment of sense, or of 
positive torment." Pope Innocent III afterward con- 
firmed this distinction, and determined that "the pun- 
ishment of original sin is being deprived of the sight 
of God; and of actual sin the punishment to be the 
torments of an everlasting hell." " And so," says Dr. 
"Wall, "the whole troop of schoolmen do establish the 
same by their determination. They suppose there is 
a place or state of hell or hades, which they call 
limbus, or infernus puerorum, where unbaptized in- 
fants will be in no other torment or condemnation 
but the loss of heaven." This distinction generally 
prevailed in the Latin Church, though there were not 
wanting Papists, nor even, in later times, Protest- 
ants, who revived the severer doctrine of Fulgentius 
above named. 

The geographical theory of the invisible world, ac- 
cording to the schoolmen, embraced heaven and hell 
according to the common orthodox view. Between 
these, in a subterranean region, lay the middle state 
or place, which was further subdivided into — 1. Pur- 
gatory, which lay nearest to hell; 2. The Limbus 
Infantum, where those children went who died without 
baptism; 3. The Limbus Patrum, the abode of the 
Old Testament saints — the place to which Christ went 
to preach to the "spirits in prison." This was also 
the same as "Abraham's bosom." All these apart- 
ments or regions belonged to the general domain of 
hades or hell, with very different proximities to heaven 



38 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

or hell, and variable degrees of misery or happiness. 
As for such infants as died before birth, the school- 
men held that "such an infant being subject to no 
action of man, but of God only, he may have ways 
of saving it for aught we know." 

So necessary to salvation was baptism, in the es- 
timation of the early Christians, that lay baptism was 
practiced in cases of imminent danger of death — nay, 
even baptism by the midwife rather than that the 
child should die without salvation. Tertullian, speak- 
ing to dissuade laymen from administering baptism 
where a bishop might be called, or where delay might 
not be dangerous, says: "Let it suffice that those 
make use of this power [to baptize] in cases of neces- 
sity. For then the adventuring to help is well taken 
when the condition of a person in danger forces one 
to it; because he that shall neglect at such a time to 
do what he lawfully may [that is, to baptize] will be 
guilty of the person's perdition." 

4. The doctrine of the early English Church on 
lay baptism was grafted directly upon that of the 
Christian fathers and the Papal Church. In the 
" Ecclesiastical Laws " of Edmund, King of England, 
A. D. 945, as quoted by Dr. Hook in his Church 
Dictionary, it is stated: "Women, when their time 
of child-bearing is near at hand, shall have water 
ready for baptizing the child in case of necessity." 
And in the National Synod under Otho, A. D. 1237, 
it is directed: "For cases of necessity the priests on 
Sundays shall frequently instruct their parishioners in 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 39 

the form of baptism." To which is added, in the 
Constitutions of Archbishop Perkham, in A. D. 1279 : 
"Which form shall be thus: I crysten thee in the 
name of the Fader, and of the Sone, and of .the Holy 
Goste." In the Constitutions of the same archbishop, 
A. D. 1281, it is ruled that "infants baptized by lay- 
men or women — in imminent danger of death — shall 
not be baptized again." But in 1575 the administra- 
tion of baptism in that Church was restricted to the 
clergy. 

5. "We are astonished to hear such doctrines within 
one hundred years of the death of the apostle John, 
but our astonishment abates when we consider how 
inveterately superstition roots itself in the uninformed 
mind, and that the converts to Christianity were gen- 
erally, after the first thirty years of the Christian 
ministry, made up of persons born and bred in hea- 
thenism. The philosophy of heathenism in that age 
was generally either atheistic or superstitious as my- 
thology itself. The tendency of religion was to out- 
wardness, and it was difficult for the masses to learn 
to disconnect religion from all necessary dependence 
upon visible institutions. A purely spiritual religion — 
one which at once appeals to the highest reflective 
reason, and at the same time holds outward forms in 
their due place, giving to them their simple symbolic 
and circumstantial importance — is at any time the 
highest moral and intellectual elevation of the soul. 

Under these cir cum stances it became easy for the 
early Christians to pervert certain plain Scriptures, 






40 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

and to infer from such passages as Acts ii, 38, and 
xxii, 16, that baptism was by Divine institution nec- 
essary for the remission of sins ; and from such state- 
ments as those of John iii, 5, and Titus iii, 5, that, 
whether in adults or infants, baptism and regeneration 
were inseparably conjoined. 

The same error respecting the cleansing efficacy 
of baptism also often induced the delay of it till later 
life, when the temptations of youth should be passed, 
so that sins after baptism might be avoided, or till 
just before death, that the soul might enter pure and 
unspotted into the celestial regions. Augustine, in 
his Confessions, simply illustrates the not uncommon 
custom within two hundred years of the apostles 
when he says of himself, in a sickness during his 
boyhood: "Thou sawest, my God, with what eager- 
ness and what faith I sought, from the pious care of 
my mother, and thy Church, the mother of us all, the 
baptism of thy Christ, my God and Lord. Where- 
upon the mother of my flesh, being much troubled — 
since, with a heart pure in thy faith, she even more 
lovingly travailed in birth of my salvation — would in 
eager haste have provided for my consecration and 
cleansing by the health-giving sacraments, confessing 
thee, Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins, unless I 
had suddenly recovered. And so, as if I must needs 
be again polluted should I live, my cleansing was 
deferred because the defilements of sin would after 
that washing bring greater and more perilous guilt." 
So lightly was sin esteemed before baptism in com- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 41 

parison to sin after baptism, that the same father 
states it as a common saying concerning one who 
sinned before baptism: "It echoes in our ears," says 
he, "on all sides, Let him alone, let him do as he 
will, for he is not yet baptized." To such absurd 
excesses does superstition lead men. 

Wickliffe, in the fourteenth century, taught con- 
cerning an infant dying without baptism, "That God, 
if he will, may damn such an infant, and do him no 
wrong ; and if he will, he can save him ; and I dare 
not," said he, " define either part. Nor am I careful 
about reputation, or getting evidence in the case, but, 
as a dumb man, am silent, humbly confessing my ig- 
norance, using conditional words ; because, it is not 
clear to me whether such an infant shall be saved or 
damned; but I know that whatever God does in it 
will be just, and a work of mercy to be praised by 
all the faithful." He further says that he that affirms 
that such an infant shall be saved, "puts himself 
more than needs, or will profit him, upon an uncer- 
tainty." He also held that such infants, if lost, will 
suffer sensible, and not simply negative, punishment. 

Among the errors alleged against John Huss, the 
Bohemian reformer, early in the fifteenth century, was, 
that "he held to the salvation of infants who by mis- 
chance died unbaptized." The relentless tone of sen- 
timent on this subject among the Papists of this age is 
to the last degree pitiable. Few dared, even in modest 
accents, to whisper words of comfort to bereaved par- 
ents, when their children died without baptism. 






42 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

6. The first Protestant reformers made some abate- 
ment of the severity of opinion in the Latin and 
Greek Churches. They generally considered, with 
the ancients, that the due punishment of original sin 
was everlasting perdition, but accounted that the good 
intention of the pious parent to give baptism to the 
child would be accepted in lieu of the ordinance, 
where, by any unavoidable providence, the adminis- 
tration was rendered impossible. "Whereas," says 
Dr. Wall, "the schoolmen and fathers have thought 
that Christ, at the day of judgment, will proceed by 
that sentence — John iii, 3-5 — in the manner that 
a judge, in a court of common law, proceeds upon 
the words of a statute, having no power to make 
allowance for circumstances ; the Protestants do hope 
that he will act in the manner that a judge of a court 
of equity does, who has power to mitigate the letter 
of the law in cases where reason would have it." 
Some supposed a difference would be put between 
the children of believers and unbelievers, on the 
ground of the faith of the parent. But the Scrip- 
tural ground of hope for the salvation of children 
seems marvelously to have been overlooked. 

Assuming that the Christian fathers of the first 
four centuries after the apostles were better judges 
of the meaning of apostolic institutions, and of the 
words of Scripture, than we, and, yielding to the 
force of an ancient, traditional faith in the sacra- 
ments, the Church of England has unfortunately fol- 
lowed them in many instances too literally. The 



DOCTRTXE OF INFANT SALVATION. 43 

"whole service for infant baptism in the Prayer Book 
proceeds upon the assumption that, anterior to bap- 
tism, the child is unregenerate and ineligible to "the 
kingdom of God,'"' or eternal life. The same rigid 
literality of John iii, 5, and the same appointed con- 
nection of baptism and spiritual regeneration, -which 
we find every-where in the ancient Christian Church, 
prevail here. In the Church catechism for candidates 
for confirmation, the person is asked, "What is your 
name ?" which being answered, it is again asked, "Who 
gave you this name?" to which the candidate is re- 
quired to answer, " My sponsors in baptism, wherein 
I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and 
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven." The several 
items of this answer, namely, " child of God," " mem- 
ber of Christ," and " inheritor of the kingdom of 
heaven," are not to be understood ecclesiastically or 
figuratively, but really and spiritually. Thus Arch- 
deacon Yardly says : " St. Paul styles baptism ' the 
washing of regeneration' — Titus iii, 5, — because in 
baptism the Holy Spirit works in us a change some- 
thing like a new birth, translating us from a natural 
state in Adam to a spiritual state in Christ; both the 
water and the Spirit concurring at the same time to 
this new birth; for as we are but once born into our 
natural life, so are we but once born into our spirit- 
ual or Christian life : we are but once baptized and 
once regenerated — regenerated at the very time when 
we are baptized." 

Bishop White says: "Now, whatever comes under 






44 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the meaning of the 'child of God,' the Church con- 
templates as bestowed in baptism." He further says 
that the expression, "a member of Christ" — in the 
answer to the second question of the catechism — 
"goes fully to the sense of a state of acceptance 
with God." 

Archbishop Wake, of the last century, says : " Bap- 
tism is the sacrament of our new and spiritual birth, 
by the outward washing whereof our inward washing 
from our sins by the blood and Spirit of Christ is 
both clearly exhibited and certainly sealed unto us." 

" Infants," says Dean Comber, a learned and dis- 
criminating writer of the seventeenth century, "have 
no other sin but their original corruption, which being 
remitted in baptism, they are undoubtedly saved. 
Wherefore, let no parents, who love their own and 
their children's souls, upon pretense of God's power 
or mercy, neglect that which is so certainly a means 
of salvation." . 

The Tractarian view is thus expressed — Tract 67 — 
" Our life in Christ is, throughout, represented as 
coming when we are, by baptism, made members of 
Christ and children of God. That life may through 
our negligence afterward decay, or be choked, or 
smothered, or well-nigh extinguished, and by God's 
mercy may again be renewed and refreshed; but a 
commencement of life in Christ after baptism, a death 
unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness at any 
other period than at that one first introduction into 
God's covenant, is as little consonant with the gen- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 45 

cral representations of Holy Scripture, as a com- 
mencement of physical life long after our natural 
birth is with the order of Providence." 

It is true that in the latter part of the same Church 
catechism it is expressly taught that a sacrament has 
two parts, " the outward visible sign, and the inward 
spiritual grace ;" and water baptism, or the mere ex- 
ternal and administrative part of the sacrament, is 
carefully distinguished from the inward and spiritual; 
yet the outward and inward parts of the sacrament 
are by the same authority conjoined, not only as the 
sign and the thing signified, but also as to time, and 
as the means to the end. The sacraments, with their 
outward as well as inward parts, are declared "gen- 
erally necessary to salvation," because, says Arch- 
bishop Wake, "they were both ordained as means 
whereby to convey their several graces to us, and as 
a pledge to assure us of them — baptism to regenerate 
us, the Lord's Supper to communicate to us the body 
and blood of Christ." There are many, indeed, who 
insist upon another view, and who, like the devout 
and evangelical Bicker steth, hold that " we enter into 
the kingdom of God in spirit, and belong to it spirit- 
ually before baptism ;" but this is not the doctrine of 
the liturgy and catechism of the Church of England. 

Martin Bucer, A. D. 1536, one of the earliest and 
most influential reformers of the English Church, in 
a conversation with Martin Luther, speaking in be- 
half of the reformed branch of the Protestant Church, 
says: "We simply believe and teach that true regen- 






46 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

eration and true adoption into the sons of God are 
communicated to infants in baptism, and that the 
Holy Spirit works in them according to the measure 
and proportion given to them, as we read of St. John 
that he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his 
mother's womb; yet, lest we should fall into the 
opus operatum notion, that we are accustomed so to 
state these things as to acknowledge that all this is 
the work of God only, but that the ministration only 
belongs to the minister." Here also the previous un- 
renewed state of the child is plainly assumed. 

So also Peter Martyr, as Regius Professor of Di- 
vinity at Oxford, and a co-laborer in the reformation 
with Bucer, both acting under the patronage of Arch- 
bishop Cranmer, says of baptism, "that it is a sacra- 
ment instituted by the Lord, consisting of water and 
the Word, by which we are regenerated and ingrafted 
into Christ for the remission of sins and eternal salva- 
tion. Water, as a symbol, is peculiarly appropriate 
to it; for as by it the filth of the body is cleansed, 
so by this sacrament the sold is purified" " Baptism," 
he says, "is nothing else but the sacrament of regen- 
eration, consisting of water and the Spirit, through 
the Word of God, from which we have remission 
of sins and eternal life according to the promise of 
Christ." But, as Martyr was a Calvinist, he further 
held that the benefits of baptism extended only to 
the elect. He says: "If election and predestination 
concur with the administration of the sacrament, what 
we do is ratified; if not, it is useless. For our sal- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 47 

ration depends upon the election and mercy of God." 
But of the fact of election he confessed he could not 
determine positively, and therefore only acted upon 
the presumption of charity in the case. He says: 
"We only follow those indications which we can have 
respecting it; such as these: that young children are 
brought to the Church to be baptized, and that those 
of maturer years profess in words that they believe in 
Christ; which marks, although they are not so certain 
that they can not deceive, yet they are sufficient for us 
for making them partakers of the sacraments." This 
is a candid statement, and assumes, if language means 
any thing, that children prior to baptism are not only 
outside of the visible covenant — which we all admit — 
but are non-recipients of the grace of life. 

Luther, in his earnestness to avoid the doctrine 
of salvation by works, and of a superstitious reliance 
on the efficacy of the sacraments, made the condi- 
tionally of faith in order to salvation, and hence in 
order to baptism, to hold good in regard to infants 
also. In the same conversation with Bucer above 
alluded to, and in regard to faith in infants, he ar- 
gued that "as we, even when asleep, are numbered 
among the faithful, and are in truth such, although 
we are actually thinking nothing of God, so a certain 
beginning of faith, which nevertheless is the work 
of God, exists in infants, according to their meas- 
ure and proportion, which we are ignorant of." But 
as to the method in which this work of faith was 
performed in them he advised against any discussion. 






48 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

This " beginning of faith" or principle of faith, Luther 
seems to hold, existed in them before baptism, and 
this alone made them eligible to the ordinance, or the 
ordinance efficacious to them. 

In the celebrated Augsburg Confession, A. D. 1530, 
he set forth the faith of his followers concerning bap- 
tism, "that it is necessary to salvation, and that 
through baptism is offered the grace of God; and 
that children are to be baptized, who, being offered 
to God by baptism, are received into the favor of 
God." They condemn the Anabaptists, who disap- 
prove the baptism of children, and affirm that -children 
may be saved without baptism. In his larger cate- 
chism, published the year previous, he so qualifies the 
necessity of baptism in order to salvation as to say: 
u Without faith baptism profits nothing, although in 
itself it can not be denied to be a heavenly and ines- 
timable treasure." "We bring a child to a minister 
of the Church to be baptized," says he, " in this hope 
and persuasion, that it certainly believes, and 
we pray that God may give it faith." The logical 
force of Luther's teaching would seem to show a 
moral fitness wrought in the child by God himself 
prior to baptism, which makes the ordinance salutary ; 
but his language is far from felicitous. 

In the Heidelberg Catechism, A. D. 1563, " which 
is," says Dr. Schaff, "the most generally -received 
doctrinal symbol of the Reformed Confession," it is 
asked: "In what way are you admonished and con- 
firmed in baptism that you are a partaker of that one 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 49 

sacrifice of Christ?" Answer: "Because Christ has 
commanded the external laver of water, with this 
promise annexed, that I am not less certainly washed 
by his blood and spirit from the pollutions of the 
soul — that is, from all my sins — than I am cleansed 
externally by water, by which the pollutions of the 
body are used to be washed away." 

It seems superfluous to multiply quotations to the 
point in question. The common language of the early 
Protestants — Lutheran and Reformed — is too strong 
for the true Protestant idea of the efficacy and in- 
tention of the sacraments. At times, indeed, they 
expressed themselves clearly; but even Calvin, at 
other times, fell back into modes of expression better 
fitted to a Romish than a Protestant creed. This, 
perhaps, was due to the extraordinary pressure of 
controversy and the common education of the times. 

7. The modern Lutheran Church on the continent 
of Europe is but little removed, on this subject, from 
the doctrine of the Romish Church; while the Re- 
formed Church, which has generally carried the prin- 
ciples of the Protestant Reformation further, and has 
been more successful in extricating the sacraments 
from the " traditions of men," still adhere to the 
language of the earlier symbols, and have not even 
yet entirely escaped the fetters of antiquity. 

The Rev. Dr. Gerhart, in a carefully elaborated 
article on the German Reformed Church, published 
in the Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1863, says : 
"Those who, as we think, develop the Christological 






50 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

principle logically, hold baptism to be not regenera- 
tion, but the sacrament of regenerating — the means 
by which the subject passes from the state of nature 
into the covenant of grace; the covenant being not an 
agreement existing in the mind of God and in the 
mind of man, but a spiritual institution, in which God 
remits sin, and bestows salvation on those who com- 
ply with its conditions." 

As expressive of the general sentiment of that 
Church, he further quotes from a report on the state 
of religion adopted by the Synod, 1859, wherein they 
say: "Parents can teach them, [their children,] what 
it is their joy and comfort to learn, that from their 
washing in baptism mag and does begin the renewing 
of the Holy Ghost, and that it is only by wickedly 
despising and willfully wandering from this grace that 
they finally perish." 

Dr. Gerhart further says : " Regeneration is wrought 
by the Holy Ghost only; but in the sacrament of 
baptism the internal grace and the external sign — the 
Holy Ghost and the element of water — are indisso- 
lubly conjoined. Otherwise the ordinance would 
not be a sacrament; for this consists of the union 
of the invisible to the visible — of the supernatural to 
the natural. It is the Holy Ghost, then, tvho, in the 
outward transaction, begets the subject of baptism aneiv 
in the life of Christ." 

It is easy to perceive that this view differs nothing 
from that of the Church of England. Dr. Bomberger, 
however, of the same Reformed Church, takes a more 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 51 

liberal view, and holds that all infants are received 
into the favor of God, and made the subjects of re- 
newing grace, as soon as they are born, prior to 
baptism, and through the redeeming love of Christ. 
"This I believe," says he, "to be the true order of 
cause and effect in this most interesting case. Little 
children are most lovely, in whatever moral attrac- 
tions they display, because they belong to the Lord 
Jesus Christ. He has fixed his redeeming eye and 
loving heart upon them from their conception. Though 
doomed by nature to be born in sin, and sinful, they 
are destined by his grace to be received into his aims 
as soon as they are born." He plainly states that 
"our Lord teaches the salvation of all little children. 
He has not left them lying to our view, under the 
dismal mists of uncertainty, concerning their relation 
to his person, or concerning their eternal doom." 
"He permitted them to be born into the death of 
Adam that they might be speedily re-born into the 
eternal life procured by Jesus Christ." He quotes 
Lange approvingly in the following words : " Thus 
are children and the kingdom of heaven designed for 
each other: the former qualified through grace for 
the latter; the latter adapted in its nature and pro- 
visions for the former. Jesus Christ himself is the 
true patron of little children ; not the archangel 
Michael, not St. Nicholas, not St. Martin, although 
the Lord commands all the angels and saints to take 
charge of them. Therefore, he who was besought 
only to touch the little ones, took them up into his 



52 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

arms, laid his hands upon them, and blessed them.*' 
Dr. Bomberger urges the baptism of children on the 
same moral ground of that of adults, "not in order 
that they may be saved, but because they give us 
good ground for hoping that they are among those 
■who are noiv justified" These views, so Scriptural 
and rational, show the proximity of the Calvinistic 
and Arminian schools upon a point fundamental to 
both. 

8. The late learned and cautious Dr. Woods, for 
many years Professor of Theology in the Andover 
Seminary, would seem to teach that baptism is to 
be given to children in order to their salvation. He 
says : " When we present our infant children for bap- 
tism, we express our belief that they are the subjects 
of moral pollution, and must be born of the Spirit in 
order to be admitted into the kingdom of heaven; 
and we express our earnest desire that they may ex- 
perience this spiritual renovation, and our solemn de- 
termination to labor to promote it by fervent prayer 
to God, and by faithful attention to all the duties of 
Christian parents. This seems to me a perfectly 
natural and satisfactory view of what is signified by 
the baptism of children. The use of water in this 
Christian rite is indeed a token of spiritual cleansing; 
not always, however, as a thing actually accomplished, 
but as a thing which is absolutely necessary. Whether 
we are concerned in the baptism of children as min- 
isters of the Gospel or as members of the Church, 
we do by this public token express our belief that 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 53 

spiritual purification is indispensably necessary for 
the children who are baptized, and our determination 
and engagement to do ivhatevcr beloyigs to us for the 
accomplishment of that important end." To the same 
effect, also, he quotes Dr. Wardlaw. But if this 
language be not intended cautiously to evade the 
expression of an opinion as to the moral state of 
infants prior to baptism, does it not clearly suppose 
them to be without saving grace — without the needed 
"spiritual cleansing" and "spiritual renovation" — 
and that they are not yet members of the "kingdom 
of heaven?" What Scriptural ground is there for 
this timid phraseology? 

9. The Methodist Episcopal Church, both in her 
Articles of Religion and her Ritual on these points, 
has copied from the Prayer Book, but with such alter- 
ations as to drop out the doctrine of baptismal regen- 
eration. In her service for the baptism of infants 
the language shows, indeed, that it was not originally 
fitted to an Arminian standard of doctrine, though it 
does not, in its revised form, contradict that standard. 
Her true doctrine on this subject is found in her 
standard writers. Her Ritual, while it does not deny, 
can not be appealed to as proving or assuming the 
gracious or salvable state of infancy prior to bap- 
tism; yet this state is constantly assumed by every 
administrator as the moral reason and ground of bar> 
tism, while the outward ordinance is accepted as the 
appointed "sign and seal" of this preexistent grace; 
just as in the analogous case of Abraham, who "re- 






54 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

ceived the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteous- 
ness of the faith which he had, yet being uncircum- 
cised." Rom. iv, 11. 

The undue exaltation of the outward ordinances 
has always operated to disparage divine grace, and 
work confusion in the relation and symmetry of the 
cardinal doctrines of redemption. Papal extravagances 
are only illustrations of the downward progress of 
sentiment when once the harmony of Christian doc- 
trine is broken. Give to baptism a saving efficacy, or 
a necessary connection with the regenerating agency 
of the Holy Spirit, and the opus operatum theory is 
a result which the common mind will practically adopt. 
The beautiful symbolic and spiritual idea will be lost 
in the physical form of the ordinance. The unedu- 
cated and sensuous mind will ascribe an inherent 
efficacy, a mystic charm, to the administration and 
to the consecrated element. 

Against this sensuous tendency of the vulgar mind 
the early reformers had hard work in contending. 
To emancipate the mind from the superstitions of the 
Papal Church, and avoid the opposite extreme of con- 
tempt of outward ordinances, was no easy task. 
Peter Bucer, A. D. 1536, congratulates the Church 
that, as the result of a better understanding between 
the Lutheran and Reformed divines, after a friendly 
conference, now "each error is excluded on both 
sides, both of those who seek salvation for themselves 
from ceremonies without faith in Christ, and of those 
who so pretend that they seek salvation for them- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 55 

solves from Christ, that they hold in small estimation 
the sacred ministry of the Church." This happy me- 
dium is the royal path of reason and Revelation, and 
it is to be regretted that the venerable Protestant re- 
formers and fathers had not always preserved it with 
greater clearness and entireness. 

Baptism is the date of the formal covenant or 
Church relation of the child, not of the renewing oper- 
ations of the Spirit upon his heart. Can we thus 
limit and restrict Divine grace? And consider how 
completely this theory robs the parent of all motive 
to a godly training of the child, unless he is a be- 
liever in infant baptism ! Much as we love the latter 
doctrine, we can not exclude the godly parent, who 
conscientiously doubts it, from all promise of grace to 
the pious instruction of his child. And beyond this, 
what confusion and distress as to the state of the dy- 
ing child, dying without baptism, this exclusive theory 
has wrought, we leave the painful records of history 
to answer. 

10. The doctrine of special election has still more 
seriously embarrassed the question of the grace of 
childhood, and operated to disturb the faith of the 
parent in the work of training. Since the period of 
the great controversy between Pelagius and Augus- 
tine, early in the fifth century, in which the moral 
condition of infants came fully under consideration, 
the belief that infants not baptized and not foreor- 
dained and elected to eternal life, will inevitably be 
lost, became a dogma throughout a large portion of 






56 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the Christian world. Whether, with Augustine, hu- 
man nature was considered as a unit, and that in- 
fants, therefore, were morally partakers of Adam's 
sin ; or whether, with others, infants were supposed 
to inherit the moral character of Adam by natural 
descent; or still again, whether, in conformity to the 
most prevalent theory, ancient and modern, Adam 
was contemplated as in covenant with God, and, by 
the terms of this covenant, federally represented and 
acted in behalf of his posterity, and that, therefore, 
all our race in him became legally liable for all the 
consequences of his transgression — in either case it 
became the prevalent dogma of antiquity that infants 
were liable to eternal wrath on account of Adam's 
sin, and that baptism, or the decree of election, or 
perhaps both, became necessary to annul the death 
penalty, or wash away original sin. 

Various opinions obtained here, also, as in the case 
already mentioned concerning baptismal regeneration, 
as to what was the exact condition of non-elect in- 
fants dying in infancy ; whether it was one of posi- 
tive misery, or only one of negative suffering — the 
simple loss of happiness — and also as to the effect 
that baptism had on the non-elect, whether to wash 
away native depravity, as in the case of elect infants, 
or whether it was wholly nugatory ; whether the chil- 
dren of believing parents were favored above those of 
unbelieving, etc. These and similar questions, in 
which men became entangled by their peculiar theo- 
logical systems and the exigencies of controversy 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 57 

disquieted the mind, and Lad a powerful tendency to 
put back and disparage the claims and hopes of child- 
hood. It must be seen, at a glance, that no consist- 
ent faith in any system of moral nurture of children 
could be had while the first principles of doctrine re- 
specting their relation to Christ and his kingdom re- 
mained unsettled. 

The great Reformation of the sixteenth century 
failed to disenthrall the mind from the fetters of pre- 
scriptive opinion on these points. Two grand forms 
the Reformation assumed on the continent of Europe ; 
namely, those of the Lutheran and the Reformed 
Churches ; and the two principal organs of this won- 
derful movement were Luther and Zuinglius, who, in 
the words of Dr. Gerhart, though "of one mind in 
their opposition to the errors and corruptions of 
Rome, yet became the types of two tendencies in the- 
ology, worship, Church government, and practical 
life." Both these branches of the Protestant move- 
ment became involved and perplexed with the subtil- 
ties and doubts of antiquity, in respect to the moral 
condition of infants, and planted anew, in the soil of 
Protestantism, the seeds of future and violent contro- 
versies. The controversy on the relation of infants 
to the atonement was early transferred to the En- 
glish Church from the continent, with little abatement 
of its virulence. The earlier Church of England re- 
formers were strongly Calvinistic : it was the preva- 
lent doctrine of the times. The formularies of the 
English Church were all produced from that stand- 






58 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

• 

point of faith, and, says Mr. Goode, "they remain — ■ 
speaking generally — as settled by the earlier Calvin- 
istic school." Bishop Carleton says that up to the 
time of Whitgift — 1595 — "Bishops and Puritans em- 
braced a mutual consent in doctrine, only the differ- 
ence was in matter of inconformity. Then, hitherto, 
there was no Puritan doctrine known." After the 
death of Henry VIII, says Dr. Mosheim, "the [En- 
glish] universities, schools, and Churches became the 
oracles of Calvinism, which also acquired new votaries 
among the people from day to day. Hence, it hap- 
pened that when it was proposed, in the reign of Ed- 
ward VI, to give a fixed and stable form of the doc- 
trine and discipline of the Church, Geneva was 
acknowledged as a sister Church, and the theological 
system there established by Calvin was adopted, and 
rendered the public rule of faith in England." The 
doctrine of Calvinism, says a reviewer in the British 
Critic for 1842, "gained possession of both Universi- 
ties ; they were the recognized doctrines of our divin- 
ity schools; it was thought heretical to doubt them." 
True, the Arminian element, since the time of Arch- 
bishop Laud, 1633, has largely come in to divide the 
doctrinal sentiments of the English Church ; but, says 
the learned Mr. Goode, "one thing is clear, that to 
insist upon the necessity of such an interpretation of 
our formularies as would place them in direct antago- 
nism to the theological systems of those who drew 
them up — that is, of the Calvinists — is an act of di- 
rect and palpable injustice." The consequence of this 



DOCTRIXE OF INFANT SALVATION. 59 

state of things is, that the Church of England affirms 
nothing in regard to the state of infants prior to bap- 
tism, nor of the certain effects of baptism on them, 
but allows the widest range of opinion. 

11. The Arminian controversy had the effect to re- 
produce the question of the moral condition of infants 
no less than that of the fifth century. A few para- 
graphs must suffice to indicate the tone of sentiment 
in the Reformed Church in Germany, as early as the 
latter part of the sixteenth and the beginning of the 
seventeenth centuries. We quote from the Works of 
James Arminius, 3 vols., Auburn, 1852. 

In 1605 the deputies of the Synod submitted nine 
questions to the curators of the University of Leyden, 
to obtain from each of the theological professors their 
reply. The third question was as follows : " Does 
original sin, of itself, render man obnoxious to eternal 
death, even without the addition of any actual sin; 
or is the guilt of original sin taken away from all and 
every one by the benefit of Christ the Mediator ?" 
In his reply to this Arminius insisted that God could 
not be angry for original sin born with us, because 
that seemed to be inflicted as a punishment for the 
actual sin of Adam, and, as a punishment, he could 
not be angry at it ; also, to suppose he is thus angry, 
supposes he acts peremptorily with some men, ac- 
cording to the strict rigor of the law, and with others 
according to the grace of the Gospel. This notion 
that original sin was a punishment, and that there- 
fore God could not be angry at it, seems to have 






60 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

been derived from Augustine, who "looked upon 
original sin itself as being in some sense a punish- 
ment of the first transgression, though it was also a 
real sin." 

In 1609 the adversaries of Arminius circulated a 
pamphlet containing thirty-one articles of theology, 
purporting to be the sentiments taught by that dis- 
tinguished divine. The thirteenth and fourteenth of 
these articles were as follows : " Original sin will con- 
demn no man." "In every nation all infants who 
die without having committed actual sin are saved." 
These sentiments, though ascribed more directly to 
Adrian Borrius, a minister of Leyden and friend of 
Arminius, were intended to be understood as the doc- 
trines of the Arminian school, and were widely circu- 
lated with a view to make Arminius himself answer- 
able to the public for what was regarded as heresy. 
In his "Apology, or Defense" Arminius argues that 
since infants are members of the gracious covenant 
which God made with Adam and confirmed in Christ; 
and as by the condition of that covenant none will be 
condemned who stand steadfast and deal not treacher- 
ously in it ; and as infants have not thus dealt falsely, 
though they are yet liable for many of the temporal 
consequences of Adam's sin ; therefore, infants can 
not be finally condemned on account of Adam's sin, 
unless we must suppose that God meant to deal 
more severely with them than with Adam, or his 
adult posterity, or even the angels that sinned. 

Arminius then states that he and his brethren de- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. Gl 

part from antiquity in two particulars: 1. "Antiquity 
maintains that all infants who depart out of this life 
without having been baptized would be damned; but 
that such as had been baptized and died before they 
had attained to adult age would be saved. St. Au- 
gustine asserts this to be the Catholic doctrine in these 
words : ' If you wish to be a Catholic, be unwilling to 
believe, declare, or teach that infants, who are pre- 
vented from death from being baptized, can attain to 
the remission of original sins.' To this doctrine," 
adds Arminius, "our brethren will by no means ac- 
cede; but they contradict both parts of it. 2. An- 
tiquity maintains that the grace of baptism takes away 
original sin, even from those who have not been pre- 
destinated — according to this passage from Prosper, 
of Aquitain : * That man is not a Catholic who says 
that the grace of baptism, when received, does not 
take away original sin from those who have not been 
predestinated to life.' To this opinion, also, our 
brethren strongly object." 

The more prevalent doctrine of the age of Arminius 
in the Reformed Church was, that children of the 
covenant, that is, who were baptized, being elected, 
were saved, but all others are lost, unless, indeed, 
rescued by the decree of election ; for, says Peter 
Martyr, " our salvation depends upon the election and 
mercy of God." But if the decree of election con- 
curred, the grace of the sacrament was efficacious; 
children of believing parents, who were baptized, 
were generally assumed to be in the covenant, of the 






62 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

elect, but all others were reckoned outside, as aliens 
and strangers to grace. Dr. Junius, President of the 
University of Leyden, and Arminius's honored prede- 
cessor in that office, affirmed that "all infants who 
are of the covenant, and of election, are saved ;" 
while he only assumes in charity, and in advance of 
the sentiments of his times, that " those infants whom 
God calls to himself, and timely removes out of this 
miserable vale of sins, are rather saved." The un- 
settled state of theological opinion on these points, 
and the disturbing effect of the doctrine of particular 
election, manifest themselves clearly in the vacillating 
tones of Witsius, in his Economy of the Covenants. 
In one place he lays it down as a dogma that none 
but the elect are ever regenerated; while in another 
place he says: "The elect are not all favored with 
regenerating grace in their infancy;" and still in 
another place argues confidently that some do " grow 
up all along with the quickening spirit," from infancy 
to mature age ; like our blessed Lord, " who in- 
creased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God 
and man," not being able "to declare the time and 
manner of their passage from death to life." It is to 
be regretted that the supposed grounds of these va- 
rious opinions had not been more carefully cited from 
Scripture by that distinguished divine. 

Augustine, as we have seen, boldly maintained that 
all persons dying without baptism were doomed to 
eternal perdition ; that infants were justly condemned 
to eternal punishment for Adam's sin, from which 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 63 

they wore rescued by baptism and the decree of elec- 
tion. Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Calvin, says Bishop 
Taylor, affirmed that children of faithful parents 
would be saved ; " but Zuinglius affirmed it of all, and 
that no infant did lose heaven for his original stain 
and corruption." Pelagius admitted that infants were 
not fit for heaven in a simple state of nature, and 
that baptism was necessary to fit them for, and confer 
a title to, heaven; but that unbaptized children, 
though unfit for the kingdom of heaven, were not, 
nevertheless, doomed to hell on account of original 
sin, but would enjoy a natural beatitude in some mid- 
dle state. 

The milder advocates of the Augustinian theory have 
in all succeeding ages of the Church been repelled 
by the shocking dogmas of that learned father, and 
to escape the consequences which his stern system 
involved, as we have already seen, early invented the 
fiction of a limbus infantum for all children dying 
without baptism. " This," says Bishop Burnett, " was 
dressed up as a division, or partition, in hell, called 
the Umbo of infants. It seemed to be little more than 
exclusion out of heaven, without any suffering or 
misery, like a state of sleep, or inactivity. So," he 
adds, "by bringing it thus low they took away much 
of the horror that this [Augustinian] doctrine might 
otherwise have given the world." But this notion of 
an intermediate place for unbaptized children was 
condemned by the Council of Carthage as early as 
A. D. 418, "on the ground that nothing could be 



64 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

conceived as existing between the kingdom of God 
and perdition." 

Arminius says: "With respect to the sentiments 
of the ancient Christian fathers, about the damnation 
of the unbaptized, solely on account of original sin, 
they and their successors seemed to have mitigated, 
or at least have attempted, to soften down such a 
harsh opinion. For some of them have declared ' that 
the unbaptized would be in the mildest damnation of 
all;' and others, 'that they would be afflicted not with 
punishment of feeling, but only with that of loss.' To 
this last opinion some of them have added, 'that this 
punishment would be inflicted on them without any 
stings from their own consciences.' Though it is a 
consequence of not being baptized," adds Arminius, 
" that the parties are said to endure only the punish- 
ment of loss, and not of feeling, yet this feeling exists 
wherever the stings or gnawings of conscience exist; 
that is, where the gnawing worm never dies. But 
let our brethren consider what species of damnation 
that is which is inflicted on account of sin, and from 
which no gnawing remorse proceeds." 

12. The controversy on the relation of infants to 
the atonement has been less virulent in the Church 
of England than in the Reformed and other Calvin- 
istic branches of the Protestant family, and it has 
more uniformly been considered in the former Church, 
in connection with baptism, than with the doctrine of 
election. Perhaps the statement of the learned and 
candid Dr. "Wall, who, on this subject, is high author- 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 65 

ity, may fairly represent the doctrine of the Church 
of England and the tone of the controversy there. 
" Concerning the everlasting state of an infant," says 
he, "that by misfortune dies unbaptized, the Church 
of England has determined nothing — it were fit that 
all Churches would leave such things to God — save 
that they forbid the ordinary office for burial to be 
used for such a one; for that were to determine the 
point and acknowledge him for a Christian brother. 
And though the most noted men in the said Church, 
from time to time, since the reformation of it to this 
time, have expressed their hopes that God will accept 
the purpose of it for the deed; yet they have done it 
modestly, and much as Wickliffe did, rather not de- 
termining the negative, than absolutely determining 
the positive, that such a child shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven. Archbishop Laud's words, we 
see, are, 'We are not to bind God, though he hath 
bound us.' And Archbishop Whitgift, disputing with 
Cartwright, says, 'I do mislike, as much as you, the 
opinion of those that think infants to be condemned 
which are not baptized.' But there are, indeed, some 
who make a pish at any one who is not confident, or 
does speak with any reserve about that matter." This 
cautious tone would be very reverent and becoming 
if the Scriptures had, indeed, left the subject abso- 
lutely undetermined and doubtful ; but in such a case 
we see not any ground for assuming, even though it 
be an assumption of charity, and not a dogma, that 
any infants are morally eligible to baptism. In the 



66 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

case of adults no clergyman of the Church of England 
would be authorized to administer baptism till satis- 
factory proof of moral fitness, by repentance and 
reformation, had been given. But on what ground 
of antecedent moral fitness is baptism administered 
to infants? If a previous state of grace is not as- 
sumed as a fact, there is no warrant for the adminis- 
tration. If such a state is assumed, then why should 
it be spoken of as a doubtful and undecided point in 
the Word of God? Perhaps the Catechism for candi- 
dates for confirmation should decide this question. 
It is there asked: "Why, then, are infants baptized, 
when by reason of their tender age they can not per- 
form them?" — that is, can not perform the conditions 
of "repentance and faith." Answer : " Because they 
promise them both by their sureties, which promise, 
when they come to age, themselves are bound to per- 
form." Does this teach that no personal, moral 
fitness is assumed to preexist in the child as the 
reason for baptism, and that the ground on which 
they are thus received is the "promise" made by 
their sureties, that they will repent and believe " when 
they come to age?" The language does not seem to 
admit of another sense. But this is not the senti- 
ment of a large class of the divines of that Church. 
Bishop Jeremy Taylor says: "For my part, I be- 
lieve this only as certain, that nature alone can not 
bring them [infants] to heaven; and that Adam left 
us in a state that we could not hope for it. But this 
I know also, that as soon as this was done, Christ 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 67 

was promised, and that before there was any birth of 
man or woman; and that God's grace is greater and 
more communicative than sin, and Christ was more 
gracious and effective than Adam was hurtful; and 
that, therefore, it seems very agreeable to God's 
goodness to bring them to happiness by Christ, who 
were brought to misery by Adam, and that he will 
do this by himself alone in ways of his own finding 
out." Yet, pity it is that the same good Bishop 
and vigorous reasoner should directly add: "And 
now, what in particular shall be the state of unbap- 
tized infants, so dying, I do not profess to know or 
teach, because God hath kept it as a secret." And 
so, after all, he completely vacillates between the 
two extremes, and rather favors the theory of a mid- 
dle state or limbus. What will not an excessive rev- 
erence for antiquity and presciptive authority do in 
unsettling the plain word of God ! 

13. In view of such facts as the foregoing we can 
not look upon an inquiry into the moral state of in- 
fants, their relation to Christ anterior to all education 
or Christian ordinances, as of merely-speculative im- 
portance. For though the tendency of sentiment in 
the Protestant Churches at the present day is to con- 
cede the universal and unconditional salvation of all 
infants dying in infancy, on the merits of the atone- 
ment and without respect to baptism, yet the sym- 
bols of faith which have come down to the different 
Churches from the fathers were not ail formed under 
the mild sway of such a sentiment. On the contrary, 






68 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

most of them grew up through sharp discussion under 
the dominion of a system of doctrine which makes 
either the decree of election the essential, or the 
sacrament of baptism the ordinary, condition of sal- 
vation. Thus the Confession of Faith of the Pres- 
byterian Church in the United States, in its sixth 
article, speaking of the sin of our first parents, says : 
" They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of 
this sin ivas imputed, and the same death in sin 
and corrupted nature conveyed, to all their posterity, 
descending from them by ordinary generation." In 
anticipation of this common guilt of our race, whereby 
all are justly doomed to eternal wrath, it is stated in 
the third article that "by the decree of God, for the 
manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are 
predestinated unto everlasting life, and others fore- 
ordained to everlasting death. These angels and men 
thus predestinated and foreordained are particularly 
and unchangeably designed; and their number is so 
certain and definite that it can not be either increased 
or diminished." And in the tenth article of faith it 
is further said: "Elect infants dying in infancy are 
regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, 
who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth. 
So also are other elect persons who are incapable of 
being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. 
Others not elected, although they may be called by 
the ministry of the Word, and may have some com- 
mon operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly 
come to Christ, and therefore can not be saved." 



DOCTRINE OF INFANT SALVATION. 69 

Thus, by the grammatical and logical connection of 
those statements, there is a non-elect portion of our 
race, infants and adults, whom no outward means 
nor "common operations of the Spirit" can bring 
to Christ and save. Has this no bearing on the 
faith of the parent in childhood nurture? We beg 
to say that these stern dogmas emanated from an- 
other age and another doctrinal condition of society, 
and could never have sprung into existence from the 
warm sympathies, and the clearer evangelical views, 
and the stirring Sabbath-school practices of this age. 
Still they exist, somewhat abstractedly, it may be, yet 
not wholly without their modifying influence on faith 
and practice, in the venerable symbols of an antique 
faith, accepted and indorsed by modern Churches. 



70 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER II. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 

Importance of a right estimate of our moral condition by na- 
ture — Infidel theory — Scriptural sense of corruption — Various theo- 
ries of depravity and sin — The true statement of the doctrine — Bible 
argument — Views of Pelagius, Augustine, Arminius — Peculiarity of 
Biblical psychology — Church of England doctrine — Jeremy Taylor 
on the doctrine of Christian antiquity — Final statement — President 
Edwards's views. 

In a treatise like this, where we are brought to 
inquire into the moral relations and capabilities of 
childhood, it seems necessary to state the Scriptural 
doctrine of man's condition by nature at the outset, 
as well to prepare the reader for the conclusions and 
practical duties which are to follow as to guard him 
against that skeptical philosophy which exalts human 
nature to depreciate the necessity and excellence of 
grace. All successful, practical treatment of children, 
whereby they are to reach the highest perfection of 
their being, must be founded on a just knowledge 
and comprehension both of their constitutional facul- 
ties and the moral condition of those faculties by 
natural birth and inheritance. If man is born into 
the world under certain moral disabilities, with certain 
evil proclivities, no system of moral education can be 
successful which ignores this fact. It must, on the 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 71 

contrary, be taken into account, and our judgment 
of human ability must be made with due allowance 
for this defect. If a man were to calculate the power 
of a machine simply on the ground of the abstract 
laws of mechanics, mathematically educed, and make 
a practical reliance for the full amount of force thus 
estimated, he would find himself greatly disappointed 
in the result as to the actual working of the machine. 
He would find that from one-fourth to one-third of 
the power he had calculated was exhausted in over- 
coming friction, and that the residue of power only 
could be relied on to produce the desired results. 
As true is it that in any just method for the moral 
and Christian training of children, the evil of their 
nature must be considered. If our system of juve- 
nile culture makes no account of human depravity, 
or the wrong condition of our nature, we shall be 
constantly baffled and disappointed in results. We 
must know the malignity of sin and the power and 
office of grace, and the child's relation to each, before 
we can be prepared to discipline and educate its 
powers according to both constitutional capability and 
gracious design. 

The fundamental dogma of European socialism and 
communism is, that the nature of man is right, and 
his external and social condition only is wrong. 
This is the doctrine of all radical infidelity. The 
system of education and of society founded on such 
a belief is obvious. It aims simply to develop what 
is in man by nature, and to remove whatever external 






72 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

and accidental obstructions to that development the 
artificial forms or accidents of society may have in- 
terposed. M. Guizot, speaking of the French char- 
acter of the last century, says : " Hence that other 
maxim of the last century, that men and things do 
very well if left to their own course and their nat- 
ural equilibrium; that evil proceeds not from our 
nature — our essential condition — but solely from a 
society badly arranged, arranged for the advantage 
of the few, who have substituted then will and their 
interest for the will and the interest of the whole; 
that it is society that needs a reformation, not man, 
who does not require it, or at least would not require 
it if society did not corrupt him; a maxim that has 
produced the most irritable and the most manifest of 
modern sores, that incurable impatience of what is, 
that unbounded restlessness, that insatiable desire of 
change in the pursuit of a social condition which 
shall finally secure to men, to all men, all the happi- 
ness to which they can aspire. This is the condition 
to which souls have been brought by the eighteenth 
century." 

This theory, which has been repeatedly tried in 
Europe, has proved a' most signal and admonitory 
failure. God has rebuked the gross sensuality and 
materialism of such philosophers, as a standing warn- 
ing to mankind. 

Society, indeed, is not generally in danger of so 
gross a misapprehension of truth as characterizes 
these infidel systems, yet there is a danger which 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 73 

lies in various semi-infidel theories, which, if they 
more plausibly assume a religious garb, are equally 
hostile to the spirit of true evangelism. If ever we 
reach the high moral ends proposed in the Gospel, 
if ever human nature and society realize the Divine 
beneficence of that scheme of salvation of which our 
Lord Jesus Christ is the author, it will be by the 
method which he has ordained, a method which ac- 
knowledges the sinfulness and helplessness of our 
nature, and its all-sufficiency only through grace. 
Christianity is a remedial scheme, and its whole force 
and fitness depend on the presupposition of the 
ruined state of man. As the value of medicine de- 
pends on the antecedent existence of disease, so the 
total worth of the Christian scheme must be estimated 
by the actual condition and necessities of human na- 
ture, making such a scheme necessary. From our 
views of man, his natural condition and capabilities, 
must arise our peculiar doctrines concerning Christ, 
his mediation, his atonement, the Church, human ac- 
countability, and the means by which human nature 
is to achieve its exalted destiny. From our views 
of human nature in its relation to the sin of Adam 
and the atonement of Christ, must arise our special 
theories concerning the capabilities of childhood, and 
the consequent duties of the parent and the Church. 
We turn, then, first of all, to inquire, What is our 
state by nature, apart from the free grace of God in 
Christ Jesus? We shall aim at nothing more than a 

brief statement, on Scriptural grounds, of the essen- 

7 






74 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

tial features of this doctrine. We are not writing a 
treatise on human depravity, but treat of it only so 
far as it forms a necessary preliminary to our main 
subject. 

The condition of man by nature, taking the word 
nature in the sense of generation, birth, is commonly 
denoted by the term depravity, a word which it is not 
easy to define with metaphysical accuracy. There is 
no one word in Scripture which technically answers 
to the idea of depravity, unless perhaps it is cpOopd — 
phtJiora — which is commonly translated corruption. 
In Rom. viii, 21, it stands in contrast to the state of 
salvation by Christ, and represents simply our natural 
or fallen state — "For the creature itself shall be de- 
livered from the bondage of corruption into the glo- 
rious liberty of the children of God." The corre- 
sponding word in the Old Testament is JH1&* — sha- 
hath — generally translated pit, but sometimes grave, 
four times corruption — Job xvii, 14; Psa. xvi, 10 ; xlix, 
9 ; Jonah ii, 6 — and twice destruction. Psa. lv, 23 ; 
ciii, 4. The prevailing idea of the Hebrew word is 
destruction, loss, ruin, not corruption in the sense of. 
putrescence. In the New Testament the idea of cor- 
ruption in the sense of impurity is prominent; but 
the radical idea, namely, that of ruin, destruction, is 
preserved throughout. When applied to man it some- 
times denotes the special derangement and abuse of 
his faculties, as 2 Pet. i, 4 ; ii, 12-19 ; and at others 
simply the general frailty, mortality, and lapsed state 
of his nature, without taking in the idea of special or 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 75 

actual abases of that nature, as Rom. viii, 21 ; 1 Cor. 
xv, 42, 50. But in every case it stands contrasted 
with a state of personal salvation in Christ, and the 
complete fruition of his redeeming grace. 

Various theories of human depravity have been set 
forth. The lowest we shall mention is that which re- 
solves the cause of sin into a simple negation, the im- 
perfection of man metaphysically, or constitutionally 
considered — the "limited receptivity" of mind. Ac- 
cording to this, error is made to mingle with our per- 
ceptions of truth, pain with our emotions of pleasure, 
evil with our attainments of good, simply from the de- 
fectiveness, privation, or limitation of our faculties, 
which we have, as finite creatures, placed under such 
physical conditions of development as naturally depress, 
excite, limit, and perplex our mental operations. But if 
tins privation operates to necessitate sin, then God is the 
cause of it, and man is to be pitied for his misfortune ; 
if it only makes sin possible, then the cause of uni- 
versal defection is still left unexplained; it yet re- 
mains to be shown how the universal defection of 
man results from a cause which makes such an event 
merely possible ; that is, how one of the most uniform 
and settled facts in regard to our race in all ages of 
the world, comes to result from a mere possibility ; 
how a fact which in any age might or might not be, 
comes to be the uniform, characteristic, and inevitable 
feature of all ages. Besides, as this theory does not 
assume any evil proclivity in man, any selfish bias 
against the truth, it would follow that the reformation 






76 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

of man from sin and error would result upon full and 
adequate information, which is not the fact. Man 
shows himself unwilling both to know and to perform 
his duty. After clear conviction of duty, it becomes 
a still more difficult work to persuade to right action. 

A much more plausible theory is that which makes 
depravity consist primarily in the wrong condition of 
the body, or organic nature of man — its appetites and 
desires. This theory supposes the wrong action of 
the soul to be due to its connection with and depend- 
ence on the body, and through it on the external 
world, assuming that the mind apart from the body, 
and per se, is not depraved. Much of human expe- 
rience and of Scripture seems to lodge the seeds 
of sin in the physical nature of man. Our bodily 
infirmities, appetites, and desires, and our suscep- 
tibilities of impressions from the external world, 
are, indeed, the chief occasions of sin, and the be- 
setting snares of the soul; but are not sufficient 
to account for the universal prevalence of the lower 
laws of our being over the higher, for the " evil 
that is in the world," the wrong condition of human 
society, or for the explicit statements of Revelation. 

This theory naturally identifies itself with sensation- 
alism, or that system which, adopting a more meta- 
physical ground-work, resolves the origin of sin into 
the susceptibility of the mind of being determined by 
impressions received through, the senses. With the 
metaphysical school of sensational philosophers, as 
such, we have nothing to do, and it will suffice here 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 77 

to state that, so long as the senses and bodily desires 
are entirely subservient to the reason and higher na- 
ture of man, furnishing him, as Muller expresses it, 
with "a basis of his earthly existence, and the means 
of his self-activity and sensibility in relation to the 
world," just so long our physical nature and organ- 
ism innocently and usefully subserve the purposes of 
the Creator. But when our external nature assumes 
an independency, and usurps dominion over the spirit, 
subjecting the will to the passions, the reason to 
bodily desires, the whole current of our moral being 
is perverted. Now, the sensational theory of de- 
pravity supposes this ascendency of the outward over 
the inner man — this triumph of sense over the intelli- 
gence, the will, and the moral feelings, to be the true 
ration-ale of sin. The sensational side of our being, it 
says, develops first, and seeks only the agreeable, the 
self- pleasing ; and the child has already acquired consid- 
erable facility and strength of habit in seeking the sen- 
sationally agreeable before the period of reason and 
reflection arrives to enable it to choose and pursue 
the morally good, so that 'the preponderance is on the 
side of the earthly, the perishable, the selfish, and 
hence arises sin. The metaphysical basis of this the- 
ory plausibly identifies itself with the doctrine that 
the mind is dependent for its ideas on objective exist- 
ence, and the senses are the necessary medium of 
those ideas. 

All heathenism, wherever it has attained any philo- 
sophical development, is underlaid with the doctrine 






78 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

of dualism, of the two eternal antagonistic elements 
of mind and matter. In the Chaldean and Hindoo 
philosophy in the East, and in that of Plato in the 
West — which reappeared in the Jewish Church in the 
form of Essenism, and in the Christian Church under 
the forms of Gnosticism and Manicheism — this notion 
of matter and spirit, struggling against each other for 
the mastery in irreconcilable conflict, reached its high- 
est manifestation. In this theory spirit is essentially 
pure, matter essentially corrupt; and the existence of 
sin is caused by the connection of the two, wherein 
the latter obtains the mastery over the former. It is 
easy to see how, according to this materialistic notion 
of the origin of evil, the whole system of asceticism 
arose in the Church, making self-mortification, or 
physical attrition in the Brahminical sense, the condi- 
tion of the highest attainments of holiness. The 
whole Papal system of monachism is built on this 
dogma of heathen philosophy. It will be seen that 
the above systems of paganistic dualism and modern 
ethical sensationalism naturally affiliate, and ground 
themselves upon the common admission that depravity 
does not inhere in the spirit, but in matter and our 
physical condition, and affects the spirit only through 
its connection with matter. In theological dogma 
they would slightly differ, but in ethics they are the 
same. 

It is not consistent with the design and scope of 
this treatise to go any further into the notice of the- 
ories on human depravity. It is against the above 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 79 

views that the Bible teaches that sin, in the sense of 
hereditary depravity, is positive, as opposed to a sim- 
ple negation, affecting our entire being, the soul as 
well as the body ; that is, however it may be philo- 
sophically defined, it is the wrong condition of the 
entire being as compared with the holy law r of God, 
possessing, aside from grace, a determinate proclivity 
and potentiality to evil. 

In the seventh Article of Religion of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, which is copied from the ninth of 
the Church of England, "original or birth sin' 7 is 
defined to be "the corruption of the nature of every 
man . . . whereby man is very far gone from original 
righteousness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, 
and that continually." 

In the brief statements of the Scriptural doctrine 
in question which we propose, we must be content 
with seizing only upon salient points. The essential 
features of the doctrine being identified, it is easy for 
the reader to carry out details and illustrations to 
any desirable length. 

The sensational theory above noticed, w r ith all others 
which primarily lodge sin or depravity in the body or 
flesh, have sheltered themselves under a misapprehen- 
sion of the Scriptural, and especially the Pauline, use 
of the term ao.f>~ — -flesh — more than all other exegetical 
defenses. It is necessary, therefore, to push our in- 
quiries into the ethical use of this word. The corre- 
sponding Hebrew to aapt; is *lt#3 — basar — and is 
used to denote flesh as a constituent part of the 



80 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

body ; also the entire body, the human race, the flesh 
of animals, all animate beings, blood relations, etc. 
Then, also, it is used to signify man as frail, mortal, 
perishable. Beyond this the Old Testament, philo- 
logically, will rarely carry us. The ethical sense of 
, flesh as a- nature at enmity with God, the very point 
of the Pauline use of caps, appears only by implica- 
tion, and must be made out of such texts as the 
following: Gen. vi, 3 — "For that he also is flesh;" 
2 Chron. xxxii, 8 — "For with him is an arm of 
flesh;" Psa. lvi, 4 — "I will not fear what flesh can 
do;' 7 Psa. lxxviii, 39 — "He remembered that they 
were but flesh;" Jer. xvii, 5 — "Cursed is he that 
maketh flesh his arm." The practiced reader will at 
once perceive how slender must be the reliance on 
such passages for the proof that the Old-Testament 
usage of the word in question carries with it the 
marked figurative and moral sense of <rapg in the 
New. Yet the germ of the New-Testament usage is 
found in the Old; for in such passages as the above 
there is an implied idea of corruption and alienation 
from God, as well as the prominent foreground of 
meaning of frailty and infirmity. 

Let it be borne in mind, then, that oap^ — sarx — 
in the New Testament has the same literal and rela- 
tive uses as ^1^3 — basar — in the Old; but that be- 

T T 

yond this it has also, and especially in the writings 
of Paul, the fully-developed ethical and figurative 
sense of a nature opposed to God._ This is the sense 
which interests us now. It is not the signification 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 81 

of what is mortal, frail, weak in man, but human 
nature as at enmity with God. "We take the position 
that that state or condition of our nature which the 
apostle defines to be iv aapxc — in the flesh — is a state 
of the mind as well as the body, the condition of our 
whole being, and defines our natural depravity, our 
condition by nature, as apart from all redeeming and 
saving grace. 

The description iv aapxl — in the flesh, (Rom. viii, 
8, 9,) is the same as xara adpxa — after the flesh, 
(verses 4, 5, 13 ;) or as (fpbvrjpa r^c aapxbz — the mind 
of the flesh, carnally minded, (verses 6, 7;) or as 
iv 77) aapxi — in the flesh, (chap, vii, 5.) In the same 
sense, also, xara adpxa — after the flesh — is used, (2 Cor. 
x, 2, 3, and xi, 8.) This carnal mind is the same as 
b r.olaibc fjpcov dudpcorro^ — our old [or former] man, 
(Rom. vi, 6;) and the old man, (Eph. iv, 22; Col. iii, 
9.) The natural outgrowth or development of this 
carnal mind, this old man, is a Co pa ri^c apapr'tac, — the 
body of sin, (Rom. vi, 6;) called also acoparoz rwv 
apaprtajv zrfi aapxb^- — the body of the sins of the flesh, 
(Col. h, 11 ;) and to 7 ) acbpazoq, zoi) davdroo toutou — 
the body of this death, (Rom. vii, 24.) And this flesh 
or carnal mind, with its collective whole of natural 
appetites and outgrowth of evil, is called xrp adpxa 
abv to7<; rcadrjpaac xal r«?c iTudupiatc, — the flesh with 
its affections and lusts, (Gal. v, 24;) and also nalaibv 
dvdpojzov ahv zru^ npdMeaev abzou — the old man with 
his deeds, (Col. iii, 9.) 

Now, it is evident from all these and such like 



82 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

expressions that we are to understand the carnal mind 
to be that state of the human soul and body, morally, 
wherein they are left to "simple naturals," deriving 
all their governing influences from within themselves, 
the instincts, appetites, desires, affections, aptitudes, 
and inclinations of nature, where redeeming grace 
supplies no governing principle or saving power. 
This is nature apart from the Spirit of God — nature, 
not in its metaphysical sense, as a simple creation of 
God, but nature in its historic and actual sense, as a 
derivation from God through Adam — nature as affected 
by the sin of Adam, developing itself under its own 
infirmity and disease without the renewing and con- 
trolling influence of the Spirit of God. 

But if oap% — sarx — denotes the carnal state — the 
state of actual nature as apart from the renewing 
grace of Christ — it is still a distinct question, and 
one of the first importance, How far does this state 
imply evil? AYhat is the state thus set forth? This 
we can answer only by attending to the logical predi- 
cates of oops in the New Testament. What do the 
Scriptures affirm of it? Here is the grand point. 

1. This carnal mind is a state of death: Rom. viii, 
6 — "For to be carnally minded is death" This is 
not natural or physical death; for Q6.vo.roq, — death — 
here stands opposed, not to natural life, but to " ^cot] 
xal eiprjVTj — life and peace" And this "life and 
peace" were the fruit and state of that (ppbvqpo. rob 
-veupazoq — mind of the Spirit — which stands opposed 
to the (fpovrjpa vijz oo.py.bq — mind of the flesh or 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 83 

oarnal mind — in the first member of the verse. The 
carnal or fleshly mind, therefore, is characterized by 
spiritual death, death to God, the absence of the 
divine life in the soul. So, also, in verse 13: "For 
if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye 
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body 
ye shall live" This life and death result from oppo- 
site states of the soul: the one where it is left to 
obey the inclinations of fallen nature ; the other where 
it is subjected, and hence subjects the body, to the 
Spirit of God. 

2. This carnal or fleshly mind is lydpa e«c deov — 
enmity against God. Rom. viii, 7. The word enmity 
is in the abstract, not in the concrete; absolute, not 
relative; denoting essential qualify, not degree; and 
is hence more intensive. It does not say the carnal 
mind or flesh is hostile to God, which might imply 
any degree of opposition, however feeble; but it is 
hostility to God — the essence, not the measure of 
enmity, in no part subdued and reconciled. 

To the same effect is the notable passage, Gal. v, 
17: " For the flesh lusteth [hath desires] against the 
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these are 

CONTRARY THE ONE TO THE OTHER." This is not an 

affirmation that the "sold hath desires against the 
body, and the body against the soul." The antag- 
onism here is not laid between the material and 
organic nature on the one hand, and the spiritual and 
immortal nature on the other. This would be to lay 
down the dualistic principle of heathenism, before 






84 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

referred to, which Paul himself confronted in the 
Gnostic philosophy, in its earliest appearance in the 
Essenistic tendencies of the Jewish converts. The 
antagonism brought to view in Gal. v, 17, lies be- 
tween fallen nature as apart from grace, and left to 
its own inclinations, on the one hand; and the Spirit 
of God as the author of spiritual life, and holy affec- 
tions to the soul on the other ; between nature as left 
to itself, and nature renewed and governed by the 
Spirit of God. Its natural desires are opposed to 
God. 

3. It is affirmed of the flesh, or carnal mind, that 
it "ou% ujrozdcrcrszac — does not subject itself to the law of 
God." And the apostle immediately adds, " oude yap 
duvazac — -for indeed it is not able" [to subject itself.] 
Rom. viii, 7. The reflexive form of the verb &tto- 
zdacrezat — hupotassetai — gives this sense, does not sub- 
ject itself. The conjunction yap — gar — is here prop- 
erly causative, according to its usual sense, and might 
be translated because — " because it can not;" or " be- 
cause it is not able" I have given it partly the 
intensive and partly the causal signification, "for 
indeed it is not able." 

Here, then, is an inability, ivant of power, to sub- 
mit and conform to the law of God, directly and in 
the most literal form, affirmed of the flesh, the carnal 
mind, or natural state of man. It is not a denial of 
the liberty of ihe will, metaphysically considered, or 
considered as a constitutional power of the mind, but 
an inability to submit and conform to the holy laws of 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 85 

God. And this inability belongs to human nature as 
such, as an inherited effect of Adam's sin. The same 
idea is reproduced in verse 8 : "So then they that are 
in the flesh, \de<p dpiaac ob ddvapreu^ have no poiverto 
please God.'' In this place, also, the nature of the 
inability is defined: "They have not power to please 
God/' In chap, vii, 18, speaking of this same carnal 
mind, and of its inability, Paul says : " For to will is 
present with me, but how to perform that which I will 
I find not." The power of simple volition was there; 
all the faculties of a moral agent were there; but the 
power to conform to the law of God in its spiritual 
claims was not there as a property of the carnal or 
natural state; "For the good that I would I do not, 
but the evil which I would not, that I do." This is 
the inability of our nature apart from grace. 

The apostle sets down the ability of man to do the 
will of God, or to "work out his own salvation," as 
due to a gracious influence, not to the unassisted, con- 
stitutional powers of nature, in that remarkable pas- 
sage, Phil, ii, 13. The ground on which he rests the 
ability to " work out our own salvation" is thus stated : 
"For it is God who worketh in you both to will and 
to do of his good pleasure." The language is too 
specific to be misapplied. The working of God in us 
is in the direction, and for the beginning and comple- 
tion, of right moral action. He worketh in you [to 
i Xseu] to will, choose, purpose ; and also to ivepyetu — to 
Work, perform, accomplish, that which is thus willed or 
purposed. The moral action begins in the will, and 






86 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

is completed in the outworking, or execution of the 
will. In both these respects God worketh in us, help- 
ing our constitutional faculties ; and without this 
gracious, inward help, our faculties would be utterly 
inadequate to " work out our salvation." " I labored," 
says Paul, " more abundantly than they all ; yet not 
I, but the grace of God which was with me." 1 Cor. 
xv, 10. This working of God in us, " to will and to 
do," is purely a gift of grace, an energy above nature, 
emanating directly from God to the creature. It is, 
says Paul, " urzkp rfc Bitdoxeac — according to his own 
gratuitous benevolence." It is this gracious working 
in us, operating in conjunction with man's natural 
powers, which constitutes the ability of man, dynam- 
ically considered, to work out his salvation. And this 
inward working of God is bestowed upon every child 
of Adam. 

We hold with Augustine here, that since man by 
his free -will became estranged from God, " this free 
will, left to itself, is now only active to sin," and man 
needs now "a new supervenient grace in order to be 
brought back to goodness." Indeed, as that acute 
reasoner maintained against Pelagius, " all rational 
beings are brought into dependence on God for the 
development of their powers as really as for their first 
creation." The natural capacities are not complete 
and sufficient of themselves, but require the continued 
concurrent action of the supernatural Spirit. But in 
the fallen nature there is superadded to this natural 
dependence hostility to the holiness and authority of 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 87 

God, and the will has no executive power, and the 
heart no inclination of itself to holy exercises. The 
power "to please God" is lost. We take the state- 
ments of Scripture here as they harmonize with com- 
mon sense and common experience and philosophy. 
" Wherefore," says our seventh Article of Religion — 
copied from the tenth Article of the Church of En- 
gland — " we have no power to do good works, pleasant 
and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by 
Christ preventing us, that we may have a good-will, 
and working with us when we have that good- will." 
"Without me," says Christ, "ye can do nothing." 
" No man cometh unto me, except the Father which 
hath sent me draw him." 

This inability to choose and perform the will of God 
by any power in us which is simply constitutional, and 
which therefore makes prevenient grace, internally 
helping us, a necessary condition of salvation, is a 
doctrine of fundamental importance, and was thor- 
oughly discussed in the Pelagian controversy. Pelagius 
argued that " God worketh in us to will that which is 
good and holy, inasmuch as by the greatness of the 
future glory, and his promise of reward, he encourages 
us, who are given to earthly desires, and do love only 
things before our eyes like brute beasts ; inasmuch as 
he raises our drowsy will by the revelation of his 
wisdom; inasmuch as he advises us to every good 
thing." The internal grace of God, he confessed, 
" consists not only in the law, but in God's assistance ; 
for God," says he, " assists us by Ins doctrine and his 



88 



THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 



revelation, in opening the eyes of our hearts; in de- 
claring to us the things that shall be hereafter, that 
we may not be fixed to the present things ; in discov- 
ering to us the snares of the devil; in enlightening 
us by the manifold and unspeakable gift of his heav- 
enly grace." He distinguished between the " power 
to do any thing," the " will to do it," and " the being 
of the thing," or effect of the will. The first he 
ascribed to God; the last two belong to the creature. 
Against all this plausible but most inadequate theory, 
Augustine urged justly the necessity of an internal 
efficient help. " If Pelagius would grant," he says, 
" that God would not only give us a power of doing 
well, but does also assist us in the ivilling and doing 
of it, the controversy would be at an end." " Let him 
once at last own that grace, by which the greatness 
of the future glory is not only promised to us, but 
believed and hoped for by us; and by which his 
wisdom is not only revealed to us, but loved by us; 
and by which we are not only advised to every good 
thing, but prevailed on to folloiv it" The difference 
between a suasive power through the instrumentality 
of external truth, whereby man is induced to use the 
strength he has by nature, and that strengthening 
power of the Spirit on the heart, quickening and help- 
ing all the faculties to right action, is the difference 
between the two theories. 

In the General Synod of African Bishops, held at 
Carthage, A. D. 418, it was enacted in their fifth 
canon, against Pelagius : " Whoever shall say, that 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 89 

the same grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, 
assists us in avoiding sin merely in this, that by it 
there is revealed and opened to us a knowledge of 
commands, whereby we may know what we ought to 
seek and what to avoid, but by ivhich nothing is 
afforded whereby, when we knoiv ivliat to do, ive may 
also be able and delight to do it, let him be anathema" 

"When the Arminians laid before the Synod of Dort 
an account of their tenets, they confessed that God's 
grace was necessary, not only to illuminate our un- 
derstanding, but also " to give strength to the will to 
avoid sin;" and not only to teach us what we ought 
to do, but also, u that ice may be able to do, and may 
love to do, that ivhich we ought" This is the Scripture 
doctrine, exactly contrary to the doctrine of Pelagius, 
which resolved the efficacy of grace into a teaching, 
and a motive power, to induce us to use the ability 
we have by nature, rather than the supply of strength 
to the will and active powers to perform that to which 
simple and unassisted nature could never attain. 

It is not our business here to go back of the plain 
statements of Scripture, and institute a metaphysical 
inquiry into the nature of that inability to please God 
and submit to his law, which is affirmed of man apart 
from grace in such passages as Rom. viii, 7. The 
practical wants of the soul call for nothing beyond 
the plain statements of Revelation, corroborated by 
every man's experience and consciousness. The fact, 
not the rationale, is revealed, and on this basis salva- 
tion is made a work of grace throughout. 



90 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

4. In Rom. vii, 18, it is affirmed that no inherent 
goodness belongs to the Jlesh. " For I know that in 
me, that is, in my jlesh, dwelleth no good thing." 

This is an important statement. The iv i/ioc — in 
me — here, is specifically defined to mean iu rjy aapxi 
fjiou — in my flesh — that is, in my natural state, my 
state by natural birth, apart from grace. The word 
ayadoc; — good — in this passage, denotes not only moral 
excellence, but excellence of that specific kind, or 
quality, which the law of God requires. The whole 
scope and connections of the passage determine this. 
Nothing was found in the flesh, or carnal state, of the 
person here represented, which answered to the re- 
quirement of that law which was "holy, just, and 
good," and this disconformity was the cause of the 
agony described in this seventh chapter. That very 
state of the soul which the law required was not found 
in him by nature. What more can be said? 

On this point the apostle is elsewhere explicit. In 
Eph. ii, 3, after stating it as a trait of their natural 
condition that, prior to the work of regeneration, " we 
all," that is, both Jews and Gentiles, " fulfilled the de- 
sires of the flesh and of the mind," he adds, "and 
ivere by nature children of wrath, even as others" 
Observe here, that what is affirmed is affirmed of the 
"we all," of "Jews and Gentiles," of these Ephesians 
and "others," a description that comprehends all the 
human family without exception or distinction. Again, 

children of wrath " 
Here is the important point. This 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 91 

word (p'jot^ — nature — occurs fourteen times in the New 
Testament, and is uniformly translated as here, ex- 
cept that in two instances it is translated kind. Jas. 
iii, 7. In every instance the word keeps strictly to 
its radical meaning of generation, birth, innate con- 
stitution, or that quality, or characteristic, which is in 
consequence of natural generation, as denoted by the 
words genus, hind. 

"The term natural" says Knapp, "is rather used 
in this doctrine in opposition to what is acquired, or 
first produced and occasioned by external circum- 
stances and causes." " 0i>aiq, — phusis" — he adds, 
" properly signifies origin, birth, from (fuw — phuo — nas- 
cor; so in Gal. ii, 15, (puaec Woudaxoe — Jews by birth, 
native Jews; and so, too, in the classics. It is also 
used both by the Jews and classics to denote the 
original, inborn, and peculiar properties, attributes, 
nature of a person or thing." " The first meaning of 
the word c'jac^ — nature — according to Schleusner, 
Wahl, and others," says Dr. Woods, "is birth, ori- 
gin, nativity ; the next meaning is that which belongs 
to a thing from its origin or birth — native disposition, 
native qualities or properties of any person." "Na- 
ture," says Bengel, here " denotes the state of man 
without the grace of God in Christ." This is ex- 
actly the idea of the word flesh, as used in Romans 
viii. Olshausen makes it tantamount to "sinful birth," 
as if it had read, "and were by sinful birth children 
of wrath," etc. This he proposes, not as a transla- 
tion, but as a doctrinal sense, sustained by the mean- 






92 THE EELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

ing of the -word, putting it in antithesis to xdptrt — by 
grace — in verse 5. The sense of the passage would 
then stand thus : " By nature [sinful birtli] ye are 
children of wrath ; by grace are ye saved." This is 
unquestionably the doctrine of the apostle, and dis- 
tinguishes between the two conditions of natural and 
spiritual birth, after the example of our Lord — " That 
which is born of the Jlesh is JlesJi, and that which is 
born of the Spirit is spirit." And so also John : " As 
many as received him, to them gave he power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
his name; which were born not of blood, nor of the 
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 
John i, 12, 13, and iii, 6. 

The doctrine of hereditary depravity has never been 
denied by any branch of the catholic or orthodox 
Church, but its discussion has, from time to time, led 
many into unprofitable and foolish speculations as to 
the law of transmission from parent to child. Such is 
the controversy between Traducianism and Creation- 
ism, or the theory that the soul is propagated like 
the body according to a law of natural generation, 
and the one that it is created by God and put into the 
body. From the second century this controversy has 
had its place in the Greek and Roman Catholic 
Churches, and among Protestants. "Luther," says 
Hagenbach, "taught Traducianism, followed by most 
of the Lutheran divines." On the contrary, Bellar- 
mine, Calvin, and the theologians of the Reformed 
Church in general, advocated the theory of Creation- 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 93 

ism, retaining at the same time the doctrine of orig- 
inal sin." Into these speculations, always irrelevant 
and absurd, we shall not enter. It is enough to know 
the facts, as the Bible has laid them down, that 
Adam, having sinned and thereby lost the purity and 
righteousness of his soul, and the healthfulness and 
immortality of his body, becoming thereafter subject 
to deranged and morbid physical and moral action, 
could not propagate a seed more perfect than him- 
self. "With singular emphasis it is therefore said — 
Gen. v, 3 — "And Adam begat a son in his own like- 
ness, after Ms image" And from that hour it has 
remained a truth in ethical theology no less than in 
physiology, "That which is born of the flesh is 
flesh." Beyond the simple facts in the case it is 
worse than idle to push speculation. Psychology 
and physiology yield no light to r eh eve the doc- 
trinal mysteries that may attach to the manner in 
which the human soul and body are formed and 
brought into the world under the sad effects of the 
first transgression; yet all Scripture and all expe- 
rience declare that the evil of depravity is in our 
nature, born in us, and hence derived by the laws of 
parentage. "Behold," says David, "I was shapen in 
iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." 
Psa. li, 5. "Who," says Job, "can bring a clean 
thing out of an unclean? Not one." Job xiv, 4. 
This the patriarch says in direct reference to the der- 
ivation of corruption from our parents. It is worthy 
of note that the Christian fathers, from Clement, 






94 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Bishop of Rome, in the apostles' time, onward, 
quoted this passage from Job from the Septuagint 
Greek version, which was then more commonly 
used outside of Palestine than the Hebrew Scrip- 
tures — where it reads, "Who is pure from corrup- 
tion? Not one, although he had lived but one day 
upon the earth." The theory that depravity is sim- 
ply the effect of wrong voluntary exercise, a per- 
mission of free will in each individual case; or that 
it is due to the influence of bad example and edu- 
cation, and therefore can be avoided or remedied by 
the force of personal choice or right social influences 
and habits, is refuted by all experience, and is not 
entitled to serious consideration. 

5. In Gal. v, 19-21, there are predicates of aap% — 
flesh — which belong only to the operations of the in- 
tellective and higher nature of man, operations of the 
mind as distinguished from the body. In that pas- 
sage "the works of the flesh" are enumerated, among 
which are some that belong distinctively to the lower 
and animal nature, as "adultery, fornication, lasciv- 
iousness, drunkenness, reveling," etc. ; while others 
belong as exclusively to the mind, as "hatred, va- 
riance, wrath, strifes, heresies, envyings," etc. Here 
are operations which categorically belong only to the 
intellective and moral nature, and are yet called " works 
of the odpi; — -flesh" Can any thing be more plain 
than that the term flesh was understood of the total 
being of man as apart from grace — his mind as well 
as his body? If the higher nature of man did not 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 95 

partake of the evil effects of the fall, how could dis- 
ordered bodily desires prevail against orderly mental 
operation, so that deranged mental as well as bodily 
action should become the characteristic of man in all 
ages ? Love of power and love of fame are aspira- 
tions of the higher nature, misdirected, lawless, cor- 
rupt, and ruinous passions, originating not in de- 
praved bodies, but in depraved minds. The mind 
" hath desires against the Spirit of God " no less than 
the body. 

In Eph. ii, 3, where Paul describes the traits of 
depravity common to both Jews and Gentiles, he 
says, they "fulfilled the desires [r£c aapxoQ xal twu 
dtauoccou] of the FLESH and of the MIND," Here 
aap£ — -flesh — is not used in its figurative sense, but 
literally, to denote the body and its organism. When- 
ever "flesh and mind" or "flesh and spirit" or 
"body and spirit" are thus enumerated and con- 
trasted, the terms are to be understood literally as of 
the two natures of man, body and soul, material and 
immaterial; as in James ii, 26, "the body without 
the spirit" etc. ; John vi, 63, " the spirit quick eneth, 
the flesh profiteth nothing," etc. In the entire New 
Testament, deavoea, here translated mind, never means 
any thing but the thinking principle, the intelligent 
soul. To this sense both etymology and usage con- 
fine us. Here, then, is an inspired declaration that 
Gentile and Jewish corruptions were brought about 
by "fulfilling the desires of the mind" as well as of 
the "flesh" or body. And these literal aapxbz xat 



96 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

diavola^ — elesh and mixd — of Ephesians ii, 3, which 
in their natural state are the fountains of Jewish and 
Gentile corruption, the seed and soil of all the out- 
growth of the " body of sin," are both comprehended 
in the ethical sense of odps — -flesh — as above given. 

How consonant to this doctrine is the current 
teaching of both the Old and New Testaments ! 
Speaking of human depravity, God goes directly to 
the inner man, the moral and intellective ego — the 
heart. "Every formation of the devices, or purposes 

of his heart [137 Hi^'n? **^!] ^ s on ty ev ^ ever y 
day." Gen. vi, 5. The Septuagint Greek version, 
which was more in use by the Jews out of Pal- 
estine in the Savior's time, and by the Christians 
afterward, than the Hebrew Scriptures, gives the 
point tersely: " xal nac; tiq ocavozcrac £v ttj xapdla 
auTOU iTzejus/.coz Ira-caT.ovqpa-aoaq, ra^rjuipa^ — and 
every one devises in his heart attentively upon evil 
every day?' Here the fountain of evil is laid in the 
heart. His cogitations, whenever they take the form 
of design or purpose — that is, assume a moral char- 
acter — are only evil. And this J?*) — evil — is of great 
significance and comprehension. It is the standing 
antithesis of DID — good — throughout the Old Testa- 
ment, as in the phrase "good and evil." "Depart 
from evil and do good." "For as an angel of God, 
so is my lord the king to discern good and bad" 
Gen. ii, 17; 1 Sam. xxvi, 17; 2 Sam. xiii, 17; 
Psa. xxxiv, 14. The good is the state of blessedness 
and perfection in which God created man, and for 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 07 

which he designed him when he pronounced him 
"very good;" the evil is the quality of badness in 
which the common nature of man is involved, and 
wherein every formation of his purposes, all the op- 
erations of his heart, are " only evil continually." 
The good and the evil were set before man in the 
garden of Paradise as the two possible states of his ex- 
istence — the former as the inheritance of his being as 
he came from his Creator, the latter as the bitter con- 
sequence of eating the forbidden fruit of " the tree of 
knowledge of good and evil. 7 ' Such is the import of 
the word, and such the condition of the fallen heart. 
To this same "heart" Jeremiah bears witness — 
chap, xvii, 9 — that it is " deceitful above all things, 
and desperately wicked;" totally deceitful, and in- 
curably diseased. Its disease is such that in human 
nature is left no curative or recuperative power, not 
even power to fathom and comprehend its own depth 
of deceit and perversity. That the term heart here 
represents the entire intellectuality of man is proved 
from the prophet's own words, which follow. "Who 
can know this heart? "I, Jehovah, search the heart; 
I try the reins, even to give to every man according 
to Ins wavs, and according to the fruit of his doings." 
How pertinently do the words of Christ apply here! 
" Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, 
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blas- 
phemies : these are the things which defile a man." 
Matt, xv, 19, 20. It is this heart which is the real 

ego, the responsible, individual entity, of which is 

9 



98 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

predicated in Scripture all the personal good or evil 
of the character. When the heart is surrendered to 
God all is surrendered; when that is withdrawn and 
alienated no work or worship is acceptable. The He- 
brews were not a philosophic people, and their lan- 
guage is not adapted to the uses of exact science. 
Not a metaphysical turn of thought occurs through- 
out the Bible. The outward physical world and the 
inward intellectual are alike spoken of in the language 
of common life, in words borrowed from the observa- 
tion of the senses. Their knowledge of nature and 
of mind being phenomenal rather than scientific, their 
language conformed to their ideas, and became hence 
simple, and better adapted to general moral instruc- 
tion than to philosophic discourse — their meaning 
being apparent from the connection and drift of 
discourse, if not from the precision of words. The 
ethical use of the terms "heart" and "flesh" in 
Scripture can not be doubtful. 

The sensational theory of depravity has found a 
semblance of proof in such phrases as "sin in the 
flesh," (Rom. viii, 3;) "Vile body," (Phil, iii, 21;) 
and especially the statement, "vopcp r^c d\paprlaz 
. . . il> rots psXea't — the law of sin in my members," 
(Rom. vii, 23) — compare also chap, vi, 19 : and also 
in chap, vii, 5 — "For when we were in the flesh, 
[iv aapx!,~\ the passions of sin, or sinful affections, 
\jcadrjpara 6.paprccov\ did work \£v role, pilsacv 
■/jpcbv] in our members [our organism] to bring forth 
fruit unto death." But these may be explained in 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 99 

harmony with the foregoing views. The "law of 
am" may have been located "in the members" of 
the physical nature by the apostle, because the 
greatest force of sinful habit and temptation seemed 
to lodge and to develop there, and the' soul to feel 
her greatest impotency and servitude from hence. 

It was the constant habit of the sacred writers to 
speak of the mind or soul phenomenally, or accord- 
ing to its sensible effects on the body; as in the 
phrase "yearning of the bowels" for strong pity, 
and "bowels" to denote mercy. So also "reins" 
and " loins " are used to denote the soul, mind, or 
heart — that is, the seat of the affections, desires, and 
passions — because under these strong emotions of the 
soul a physical sensation is experienced in those re- 
gions. So also the phrase "inward part" is used to 
denote the soul. Ps. li, 6; see also Job xxxi, 20; 
Ps. vii, 9, and xvi, 7, and xxvi, 2; Prov. xxiii, 16; 
Jer. xi, 20, and xvii, 10. In John vii, 38, the word 
"belly" is used in exactly the sense in which we 
would use the phrase "inmost soul" — "out of his 
inmost soul shall flow rivers of living water." The 
meaning is that from tvithin him, from the depths 
of his conscious being, shall flow living water. He 
that would study Biblical psychology — a most im- 
portant study in its bearing on the ethical and spirit- 
ual portions of Scripture— must approach it from the 
Jewish stand-point, through a Jewish glossary; not 
from the present advanced position of metaphysical 
science, nor with a modern terminology. 



100 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

The bodily organs are the instruments of the mind, 
and through whatever sensible medium the mind finds 
its manifestation, it would be natural that the eye of 
an unphilosophic observer should be directed to such 
medium, and to locate the mental faculty precisely 
at the seat of the physical sensation. It is largely 
by the effects produced upon the physical organism, 
either by the mind acting from within upon the nerves, 
or objects pressing themselves upon the senses from 
without, that we even now become acquainted with 
the laws of mental action. Nor is it irrelevant to 
remind the reader that the first lessons of meta- 
physical science relate to sensation — an important 
fact in its bearing upon the point in question. It 
is no wonder, therefore, that the passions of the mind 
which find expression through the bodily organs should 
be denominated " the works of the flesh," and spoken 
of as if they originated in the bodily organs. Thus 
the habit of sin which had found a uniform expression 
through the physical members might naturally enough 
be called "the law of sin in the members." The 
bodily members are not only the instruments of the 
soul's sinful activity, but of its punishment also. 
"The soul," says Bengel, "is, as it were, the king; 
the members are its citizens: sin is, as an enemy, ad- 
mitted through the fault of the king, who is doomed 
to be punished by the oppression of the citizens." 
But in any wise such phrases as those in question can 
not be construed against the clear and overwhelming 
light of the analogy of Scripture as already given. 



NATURAL DErRAVITY. 101 

The early Christian Church, unhappily mistaking 
the Scriptural antithesis of flesh and spirit for the 
dualistic antagonism of spirit and matter, as taught 
by the heathen, and as the Jews had done before 
them when they had become infected with the pagan 
philosophy, became enamored of a false asceticism in 
piety, which, in the language of Hundeshagen, " vir- 
tually turns the body into a creature of the devil," 
while the soul is commiserated for its unfortunate 
companionship therewith. But as Meyer w T ell ob- 
serves : " There is nothing in the Biblical use of the 
term to justify the opinion that the flesh [the literal 
body] — caps — is in itself evil, or necessarily produc- 
tive of sin." It is the body in its living, animate 
state — hence as including the soul, and as the instru- 
ment of the soul — that has this deadly power. "The 
physical-corporeal life of man, with its center, I," 
says the author last quoted, "departed from the life 
of God and isolated itself; and, being no longer sus- 
tained and attracted by the powers of the world above, 
is drawn downward — its tendency becomes earthly, 
worldly, and all its functions partake of this char- 
acter." But united to God it is controlled by the 
Divine Spirit. The literal flesh, therefore, is not an 
efficient or responsible cause of either good or evil, 
but simply a passive instrument of either, according 
as the living agent or soul is actuated by the Spirit 
of God, or the principles of natural depravity. 

The Church of England, in her ninth Article of 
Religion, defines original sin or natural depravity to 



102 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

be "the fault or corruption of the nature of every 
man," which he has by natural birth, "whereby man 
is very far gone from original righteousness, and is 
of his own nature inclined to evil." Now, here are 
four points in the definition: the "fault" — defect or 
infirmity; the " corruption'' — which is, says Jeremy 
Taylor, " exegetical of the other :" the loss of " orig- 
inal righteousness" and hence of all supernatural aids, 
leaving man to "pure naturals;' 3 and the "inclination 
to evil.'' The whole definition is then resolved into 
an "infection of nature," and the sum and essence 
of depravity declared to be the same as Paul calls 
ippovypa aapzbz — plironema sarkos — which, says the 
Article, " some do expound the wisdom, some sensu- 
ality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh.'"' 
It is simply translated in our English Bible "carnal 
mind." All this cautious avoidance of philosophic 
terms shows how the framers of the Articles felt 
themselves pressed upon either hand with human 
speculations, and with the importance, in giving 
adequate definitions, of keeping within Scriptural 
phraseology, and not erecting into dogma subjects 
which lose themselves in obscure depths of psychol- 
ogy and metaphysics. " That the first ages taught 
the doctrine of original sin," says Jeremy Taylor, 
"I do nowise doubt, but aflirni it all the way; but 
that it is a sin improperly, that is, a stain and a 
reproach rather than a sin; that is, the effect of one 
sin and the cause of many ; that it brought sickness 
and death, mortality and passions; that it made us 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 103 

naked of those supernatural aids that Adam had, and 
so more liable to the temptations of the devil: this is 
all I find in antiquity, and sufficient for the explica- 
tion of this question, which," he adds, "the more 
simply it is handled the more true and reasonable 
it is." 

The same author sums up the doctrine of Christian 
antiquity on this subject thus : 

"1. Original sin is Adam's sin imputed to us to 
many evil effects. 

"2. It brings death and the evils of this life. 

" 3. Our evils and necessity being brought upon us, 
bring in a flood of passions which are hard to be 
bridled, or mortified. 

"4. It hath left us in pure naturals, disrobed of 
such aids extraordinary as Adam had, [that is, of 
original righteousness and its first immunities.] 

"5. It deprives us of all title to heaven or 
supernatural happiness; that is, it neither hath 
in it strength to live a spiritual life, nor title to 
a heavenly. 

"6. It leaves in us our natural concupiscence, 
[sensual desire,] and makes it much worse." 

What, then, is the sum of orthodox teaching as to 
the nature and extent of original sin, or hereditary 
depravity? We can not agree with those who make 
it to consist merely in the inordinateness of bodily 
desires. This is one condition of our nature, but does 
not comprehend the evil. Nor can we agree with 
those who make the connection of mind and matter, 



104 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

and the consequent impressions of the latter upon the 
former, through the senses, the cause of universal 
aberration and alienation from God. This also has its 
influence, but falls short of the real and adequate 
cause of the disordered action of the moral ego. Nor 
can we make out an adequate account of human de- 
pravity by adding to these the frailty, disease, dis- 
abilities, and mortality of the body. Above all these 
there is an evil affecting the higher nature, the soul. 
The soul has lost its original righteousness, its super- 
natural helps, its holy sympathies, affections, and 
aspirations. This righteousness was not a develop- 
ment of constitutional powers, but the gift of God 
superadded to existence. This the sin of Adam for- 
feited, not merely for himself, but for the race, for 
universal humanity. Whether the effect of Adam's 
personal sin on universal human nature was accord- 
ing to a law of natural connection, or of federal rela- 
tion between him and his posterity, we stop not now 
to inquire. This fact only we affirm, without specu- 
lating upon the mode of its accomplishment, that 
Adam's sin had the effect to place his posterity in 
this evil case. But this absence, or loss of " right- 
eousness and true holiness," which is the moral image 
of God, in which man was created, is not merely a 
negative loss, but implies also the presence of oppo- 
site qualities of character. The loss of good implies 
the presence of evil; the loss of humility is the 
presence of pride; the loss of love, the dominion of 
the selfish and malevolent affections ; the loss of 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 105 

holy desires from the soul, the indwelling of their 
opposites. 

President Edwards lays down the case thus : 
"When God created man he implanted in him two 
kinds of principles : the one inferior, comprehending 
all that is simply natural to man, all that is implied 
in, or necessarily resulting from, and inseparably con- 
nected with, human nature; and the other superior, 
comprehending all that is supernatural, spiritual, holy, 
and divine. These superior principles were given to 
possess the throne and maintain dominion, the others 
to be subordinate and subservient. These superior 
principles depended immediately on man's union and 
communion with God, or the divine influences of 
God's Spirit. They were, indeed, the original right- 
eousness in which God made man. Sin forfeited 
this divine, spiritual, and holy nature, and this 
supernatural aid, and left man to the dominion of 
the lower, or simply natural principles. "As light 
ceases in the room when the candle is withdrawn, so 
man is left in a state of darkness, woeful corruption, 
and ruin, nothing but flesh without spirit, when the 
Holy Ghost, that heavenly inhabitant, forsakes the 
house. It were easy to show how every depraved 
disposition would naturally arise from this privative 
original." 

This view agrees with that of Augustine, and has 
received the general sanction of the Church. A 
subordinate difference has, indeed, obtained between 
different theological schools, as to whether this orig- 



106 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

inal righteousness of Adam were a gift of God, 
superadded to simple nature, or whether it belonged 
to nature. Hagenbach, speaking of this doctrine as 
it obtained during the first two hundred years of the 
Protestant Reformation, says : " While theologians 
of the Roman Catholic Church agreed with the ma- 
jority of the scholastics in regarding the original 
righteousness of man as a superadded gift, Protest- 
ants — Lutherans as well as Calvinists — maintained 
that God created man in the possession of perfect 
righteousness and holiness, qualities which, together 
with his immortality, belonged to his original nature" 
It is not important for us to enter this controversy, 
though the Edwardsean theory is the more simple. 
The distinction lies beyond the province of dog- 
matics, or positive theology, however, and belongs to 
the realm of speculation. All agree that righteous- 
ness and true holiness are the fruit of the Holy 
Spirit's operation, that God created man in upright- 
ness and holiness, subject to the higher laws which 
emanated from this spiritual and holy character, and 
that by sinning he fell from this righteous state, lost 
its governing power, and plunged his nature into 
disorder and corruption. The Assembly's Larger 
Catechism says : " The sinfulness of that estate 
whereinto man fell consisteth in the guilt of Adam's 
first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he 
was created, and the corruption of his nature, where- 
by he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made op- 
posite unto all that is spiritually good, and wholly 



NATURAL DEPRAVITY. 107 

inclined to all evil, and that continually; which is 
commonly called original sin, and from which do 
proceed all actual transgressions." The privation 
of original righteousness must be understood to 
imply as much as this. Depravity is not a mere 
negative state. It is human nature thus left to itself 
by the withdrawinent of Divine and spiritual in- 
fluence, and by necessary consequence corrupt and 
at enmity with God, that is denoted by the figura- 
tive use of oao- — -flesh — in the New Testament, a 
term which constantly stands opposed to Trus'jtia — 
spirit — which in its ethical or figurative sense as 
constantly either signifies the Holy Spirit as renew- 
ing and governing the heart, or the intellectual 
nature of man as under the renewing, sanctifying, 
and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit. 

Such, then, is man's natural state. Such is the 
Arminian doctrine upon the subject. Herein we 
agree with Augustine and Calvin, however we may 
differ in certain corollaries arising from this doctrine, 
or on the principle by which the atonement is applied 
as a remedy according to the Divine plan of grace, 
not to go back of this to speak of foreordination 
and particular election. 

Further arguments in support of these views of 
natural depravity will be given in the following 
chapter, when we come to examine Rom. v, 12-21, 
where they properly belong. 



108 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER III. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 

Children are reckoned to Christ — Proof from Kom. v, 12-21 — Proof 
from Matt, xviii, 1-14— Proof from Matt, x, 40-42— From Matt, 
xix, 14. 

Such, then, is the condition of our nature apart 
from grace. But is it left here? And if not, if 
help is afforded, what is the efficacy of that aid, at 
what period of our existence does it reach us, and 
through what channels and to what extent? Is it 
given to all alike, or is it limited to a definite part? 
Is it conditioned upon baptism, or any human act; 
or is it, to all our infant race, a direct and uncondi- 
tional benefit of the atonement? Does the Bible 
reckon children simply as in a state of nature, or 
rather actually in a state of grace? Are they 
spoken of and treated in Scripture as under the 
power of Adam's transgression, or of Christ's re- 
demption? Are they classed with aliens, or with 
citizens? Are they counted to the Church, or to 
the world? as the heirs of life, or the children of 
wrath? as condemned, or righteous? as dead in sin, 
or as quickened and alive in Christ? as morally 
eligible to covenant relation to God, or as morally 
unfit for such privilege ? 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 109 

These are grave questions, and we take the ground 
that children are reckoned to Christ and his Church; 
that as soon as their distinct entity or individuality 
is established, as soon as they become human, pos- 
sessed of a rational soul and endued with the fac- 
ulties — undeveloped — of moral being, as soon as the 
ego of percipient existence is formed, so that the 
capacity for moral happiness or misery becomes a 
property or a possibility of being, so soon the human 
soul comes within the all-comprehensive and gracious 
provisions of atonement. The date of redemptive 
power and grace to each individual of our race is 
coincident with the date of existence. If David 
could say in truth, " I was brought forth in iniquity, 
in sin did my mother conceive me" — Ps. li, 5 — with 
equal truth, and in a sense no less spiritual and 
pertinent, could he say, " Thou didst make me hope 
when I was upon my mother's breasts. I was cast 
upon thee from the womb : thou art my God from 
the womb of my mother." Ps. xxii, 9, 10. " For 
thou hast possessed my reins : thou hast covered me 
in my mother's womb. Thine eyes did see my sub- 
stance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my 
members were written, which in continuance were 
fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 
How precious are thy thoughts unto me, God !" 
Ps. cxxxix, 13, 16, 17. What that holy woman, 
Mrs. Isabella Graham, wrote to her daughter, con- 
solitarily, on the loss of her child who had died in 
birth, we say of all : " The Lord is your God, and 



110 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

the God of your seed. John the Baptist leaped in 
the womb when the salutation of Mary sounded in 
his mother's ears ; he was then a living soul, and an 
heir of salvation at that moment. If your babe was 
conceived in sin by the first covenant, he is an heir 
of grace by the second. . . He is of the travail 
of the Redeemer's soul; children are God's heritage, 
the fruit of the womb his reward." 

The efficacy of this grace is the ground and reason 
for carrying out the original purpose and plan of 
God in regard to a race. Had it not been for me- 
diatorial interposition no child of Adam would have 
been born, and the consequences of the first trans- 
gression would have terminated on the first guilty 
pair. The existence, therefore, of the first, and each 
successive child of Adam, is a fruit of atonement. 
But further than this, the grace of atonement has 
the efficacy to secure instant acquittal to each child 
from all condemnation which fell upon our race 
through the first transgression, present acceptance 
with God, meetness for the kingdom of heaven, the 
inception of a life of saving grace, and provision for 
all prospective demands of probation. We now pass 
to examine the Bible grounds for this view of the 
gracious state of infants. 

I. Our first proof is contained in the argument of 
Paul, Rom. v, 12-21. 

The main design of this passage lies upon the face 
of it, and is, as Professor Stuart happily expresses 
it, " To impress on our minds the certainty of salva- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. Ill 

tion through redeeming blood, and to exalt our views 
respecting the greatness of the blessings which Christ 
has procured for us, by a comparison of them with 
the evil consequences which ensued upon the fall of 
our first ancestor, and by showing that the bless- 
ings extend not only to the removal of these evils, 
but even far beyond this." 

As, therefore, the design of the apostle is to 
discuss the very question at issue, his argument, 
whatever it is, must be not only relevant to our 
purpose, but decisive. 

It must be premised that the entire argument of 
Paul is based on the comparison above alluded to. 
He institutes a parallel between Adam and Christ, 
as the two representative heads of the human race ; 
Adam as the lineal ancestor, Christ as the Author 
of spiritual life and hope. The various points of 
contrast between the two will be sufficiently noticed 
in the process of our remarks ; but the one grand 
and fundamental point of resemblance upon which all 
the relevancy and force of the apostle's argument 
depends is this — they were both representatives of the 
entire race, so that their acts, of transgression on the 
one hand and righteousness on the other , extended in 
their effects to all the individuals of the race. Destroy 
this representative relation of the two, as is done by 
the Pelagian hypothesis, and the passage in question 
becomes totally unexplainable. 

The same relation of Adam and Christ to the hu- 
man family is also affirmed in 1 Cor. xv, 45-49. 



112 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

" And so it is written, The first man Adam was 
made a living soul ; the last Adam was made a 
quickening spirit. . . The first man is of the earth, 
earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy ; 
and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are 
heavenlv. And as we have borne the image of the 
earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 
These statements are categorical and definite. All 
men are reckoned in Adam as of his image, under 
the effects of the fall, till they are anew enrolled in 
Christ. By Adam or by Christ, each member of the 
human family stands represented; by the one as the 
natural progenitor and destroyer of the race, by the 
other as the Spiritual Head and Restorer. 

It is not necessary for us to assert on what law 
of connection the sin of Adam came to affect all his 
posterity; the simple fact of such connection and re- 
lation as made his sin an inevitable curse to all his 
race is all we need affirm. This the apostle affirms. 
This representative relation is as universal in Christ 
as it is in Adam. Any other theory is fatal to the 
apostle's reasoning. 

Again, whatever effects flowed from Adam's sin, or 
from Christ's righteousness, to the human family, 
flowed to infants, as such, in the first instance. 
They flowed to our humanity, our common nature, our 
race, and they reached human nature at the moment 
it became human. No other application of the argu- 
ment of Paul is admissible. That the terms zbv 






RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 113 

x6<7/iov, irdvrtxG chdncbzou;, ol xoXXoi — the world, all 
men, the many, etc. — in this connection, denote the 
race, need hardly be asserted. They are all terms 
which stand in contrast with ho; a^Oncb-wj—the one 
max — the progenitor, Adam, and can mean nothing 
less than his total posterity. So, also, on the other 
hand, by the very conditions of the argument, -when 
these terms stand opposed to the i>b; d^OfKozou 
'' ' lr t ao 7 j Xotazo'j — one man Jesus Christ — they can 
denote nothing less than the total race of man. 

It must be borne in mind that we are now speak- 
ing of the unconditional benefits of atonement only as 
they reach and affect our common nature prior to ac- 
countability. "We are not speaking of adults, or those 
endowed with personal responsibility; these having 
sinned by choice, are saved by the same grace only 
through repentance toward God and faith in our Lord 
Jesus Christ. But our race prior to personal ac- 
countability, not having sinned by personal intelli- 
gence and choice, yet brought by their relation to 
Adam under the effects of his sin, are reached and 
rescued, without their personal choice or agency, by 
the remedial and saving grace of Christ. The paral- 
lel between Adam and Christ, therefore, as represent- 
ative heads of the human family, is carried, in the 
present argument, only to the extent to show what is 
the unconditional effect of grace upon the infant and 
irresponsible portion of mankind. The conditional 
blessings upon adult and responsible humanity are 

equally glorious; but, being modified as to their re- 

10 



114 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

ception by human agency, do not fall within our plan 
to notice. We pass, then, directly to the argument. 
1. The apostle employs the terms life and death 
to set forth the effects of Adam's sin and of 
Christ's righteousness upon the human race. Yerse 
12 : " By one man sin entered into the world, and 
death by sin." Verse 15 : " Through the offense of 
one [Adam] the many [the race] have died." Verse 
17: "By one man's offense death reigned by one." 
Verse 21 : " Sin hath reigned unto death." That 
Odvaroc — death — here denotes moral or spiritual 
death, as well as the death of the body, is proved 
from the argument of Paul. To it he opposes, as a 
direct antithesis, that £tor t — life — which is, through 
the "gift of righteousness" — verse 17 — a spiritual 
life; and that Cco^v alwvtov — eternal life — which the 
" reign of grace through righteousness " secures. 
Verse 21. Winer says that "to the words, ' as by 
one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin,'' we should have expected the apodosis, [or prin- 
cipal statement of the sentence, expressive of the re- 
sult to be,] ' even so by the one, Clwist, grace hath 
entered into the ivorld, and by the grace the life' " In 
the same way are death and eternal life contrasted — 
chap, vi, 23. Now, this death spiritual of our race, 
the effect of Adam's sin, is counteracted, and an op- 
posite state produced by Jesus Christ. The argu- 
ment is very specific and in point. In verse 15 it is 
this ; namely, that if o! ttoUoc — the many, the race — 
had died through the sin of Adam, " much more the 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 115 

grace of God and the gift by grace hath abounded 
unto [robs noAAobf;'] the many" The point of the ar- 
gument here is the total number affected. The many, 
the race, died; the many, the race, have received the 
grace of God and the gift by grace, which restores to 
life. Nay, " much more " hath this grace " abounded " 
to them : there is not one exempt case. The grace is 
not only coextensive with the death, and counteracts 
it, but it superabounds and overflows. In verse 17 
the point of the argument turns, not upon the number 
affected, but upon the certain dominion of life over 
the antecedent certain dominion of death; and here, 
as every-where, the triumph of grace over original 
transgression is made conspicuous by the intensive 
form of contrast, tzoXXco fiu/lov — much more; — "MUCH 
MORE they which receive abundance of grace and the 
gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, 
Jesus Christ." Whatever, therefore, is the effect of 
Adam's sin upon our race, denoted by the term 
"death" we find its sovereign antidote and opposite 
in the effect of the grace of Christ, denoted by the 
terms " life " and the " receiving abundance of grace 
and of the gift of righteousness" If the "grace" 
the "gift of righteousness" and "life" do not annul 
the death-sentence and restore to life, and even go 
beyond it, the argument means nothing : it is merely 
a pompous and deceptive hyperbole. 

But the force of this declaration is not yet ex- 
hausted. The total number over whom death reigned, 
through the sin of Adam, are represented as " receiv- 



116 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

ing abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness." 
Mark here the force of the words. They have not 
merely been made eligible to this grace; it is not 
merely a possibility, an overture, a provision; but a 
BESTOWMENTj an experience. The word "receive" — 
rerse 17 — implies this. So. also, the words "gift" 
and "free gift'' — ydp :( jfm. ocoor^ua — denote tlxe tiring 
given, and imply the actual bestoicment of the grace 
or benefit. How else could it be a gift ? The act of 
conferment enters into the very notion of a gift. Till 
it is bestowed it is not a gift. The language strongly 
asserts that the life-giving grace of atonement be- 
comes immediately available to our humanity. Christ 
did not die that children, our common race, should 
become eligible to grace and spiritual life on arriv- 
ing at mature age, or in the event of natural death; 
but that they should become recipients of this grace 
at the moment of their first need — the moment of 
existence. If it should be objected to this argument, 
that a gift may be said to be bestowed and received 
when a valid title is conferred and accepted, we 
reply, that if the apostle's language is to be thus 
construed, we must go back a step and change the 
protasis, or conditional member of the sentence. It 
would then read : ' ; For if by one man's offense the 
liability or threatening of death reigned by one, much 
more they which receive the promise or title to abund- 
ance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall 
reign in life by one. Jesus Christ." If the "grace 
and gift of righteousness" are onlv a title to "life," 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 117 

and not a present, personal inception of life, then, 
also, by the conditions of the argument and the law 
of antithesis upon which it rests, the "death" spoken 
of must be only a liability of death, a death in pros- 
pect, not a personal, present fact and experience. 
But as no orthodox Christian will assert this, there- 
fore our argument must stand. 

2. In verses 16, 18, the apostle represents the effect 
of Adam's sin by the term "condemnation:" "The 
judgment was by one to condemnation;" "By the 
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation" 

The word xardxpe/ia, translated condemnation, is 
literally and forensically the sentence of the law; and 
the strict sense of the apostle's language is, that by 
the sin — to 7 j ho- — of the ONE [man] the judicial 
judgment of God was to the effect of passing the 
sentence of the law — ece ndvTaQ d^daco-ouc, — upon all 
men. Here, then, xazdxpcaa — condemnation — takes 
the sense of punishment, because it is a practical en- 
forcement of the sentence of the law ; and this sen- 
tence, or penalty, is set forth in the comprehensive 
word b ddvaro- — the death — in verse 17. It is here 
that theologians have found the doctrine of the 
imputation of Adam's sin, and it can not be de- 
nied to be the doctrine of the apostle; but not in 
the sense taught by Augustine, and the men of that 
school — sin and guilt, in the strictly judicial sense, 
are not transferable. If the apostle is to be under- 
stood in the strictly legal sense, we must then sup- 



118 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

pose our humanity, while yet comprehended in Adam, 
and only as comprehended in Adam, was put under 
the full and actual sentence of the law. Had that 
sentence heen executed, no child of Adam had ever 
been born. The moment a living posterity is per- 
mitted to spring from the first sinning pan, the ques- 
tion of inflicting on them literally the penalty of the 
first offense assumes an entirely new aspect, both in 
law and ethics. In the condition in which they ex- 
isted at the time, and partook of the first transgres- 
sion, and in that condition only, were they liable for 
the full punishment due to it. If it be said that their 
existence at that time was a simple ideality, we admit 
it, and so would have been their punishment. But as 
the personal existence of a posterity was a promise 
and a prospective and provisional fact, by a kind of 
legal fiction they are spoken of as parties in the 
transaction, acting and being liable to penalty. On 
the supposition of their being born without the provi- 
sions of atonement, they must stand exposed to eter- 
nal death; but such a supposition could never have 
become a reality : eternal justice and eternal mercy 
alike forbade it. Apart from grace, indeed, eternal 
ruin must have followed to every child of Adam ; but 
human nature, in fact, never was left for one moment 
without grace. The theory of Augustine, therefore, 
that eternal death might be actually inflicted in jus- 
tice upon the living millions of Adam's posterity for 
the first sin, does not follow from the premises of the 
apostle. As a legal fiction it may be assumed for the 



RELATION OP CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. Ill) 

sake of the argument, but as a fact it could never 
exist. If, therefore, the condemnation here spoken 
of is understood to apply to the successive, living 
generations of Adam's posterity, then the only ad- 
missible sense of the apostle is found in the hypothe- 
sis that he uses language, not in the strictly philo- 
sophical, or the "juridico-philosophical" sense, but in 
the more popular way, to denote that the consequences 
of Adam's sin have reached us to the extent of nat- 
ural death, the derangement and preponderance of 
fleshly appetites, and the disability and injury of our 
whole nature. In this popular way of speaking God 
says he is "a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the 
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
generation" — Exod. xx, 5 — because, in his right- 
eous providence, the children are made to suffer the 
evil consequences of their fathers' acts. But in the 
strict, juridical sense God says, " The son shall not 
bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father 
bear the iniquity of the son ;" but " the soul that 
sinneth it shall die." Ezek. xviii, 4, 20. 

But in whatever sense the words of the apostle 
may be understood, it is the same as it affects the 
pending argument. He speaks of our race. Our 
common humanity fell under the awful xaraxocua — 
sentence of the laiv. This was the Divine judgment. 
Now, coextensive with this sentence of condemnation 
was the " free gift " of Christ " unto justification." 
And this drxatcotm — justification — is not a mere legal 
exemption from punishment, not a bare legal ac- 



120 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

quittal, but a state of personal righteousness, as the 
word imports, and as it is elsewhere rendered. Chil- 
dren are, therefore, hereby accounted as personally 
righteous through Christ. The same word — ocxauo/m, 
justification — is used in this same, 18th, verse, and 
translated righteousness, and denotes the righteous- 
ness of Christ. "Even so by the righteousness of 
one," etc. The same word also occurs* in the phrases 
"the righteousness of the law," in Rom. ii, 26, and 
viii, 4; and still more in point, as fixing the usage, 
in Rev. xix, 8, where it is expressly applied to "the 
righteousness of the saints." The word, therefore, 
denotes the personal state of Tightness, or approval 
in the eye of God. In verse 18 the antithesis is 
carried out more fully, and the moral idea of justi- 
fication clearly brought to view. It is a baaicoatv 
fftjiyc — justification of life. "Therefore, as by the 
offense of one judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation, even so by the righteousness of one the 
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." 
Whatever that " condemnation " was, as to its legal 
or moral effect upon our race, it was effectually re- 
moved by the efficacious righteousness of Christ, and 
a "justification to life" was bestowed in its stead. 
And we repeat it, as this "justification of life" was 
a "free gift" to our humanity, to the race as such, 
and not to any class or age as such, it must take 
effect in infancy; that is, it must take effect with 
each individual as soon as he becomes a partaker 
of the "condemnation" of humanity. The justifi- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO OHRJ 121 

cation covers nil the condemned, and reverses the 

u judgment" which stands against us at the first 
moment when it would otherwise take effect This 
is the conclusion to which the logic and exegesis of 
the passage bring us. 

3. In verse 19 the apostle employs still another 
term to set forth the condition of Adam's posterity 
in consequence of his disobedience. They are u 9Wr 
*-By one man's disobedience the many were 
:" 8.fMapza>Xol y.a.7z.<77(idr t (jas — were con- 
stituted sinners, or depraved. In what sense the sin 
of Adam produced this result, or by what law of 
connection with his posterity it was effected, we re- 
peat, it is not relevant to our present argument 
here to discuss. It is the asserted fact that we are 
now concerned with. It must be remembered that 
Paul is here speaking of "the many," the race, as 
being made sinners by the disobedience of Adam. 
It was not the actual transgression of "the manv*' 
which constituted them " sinners,*' as the Pelagian 
theory teaches, but the disobedience of too fade 
dsdpcozo-j — the oxe max. The sinful condition of 
the race is here set down as the result of " one 
man's disobedience.'' In verse 12 the apostle had 
1 that by this same u hoc d^dpcozov — ONE 
KAN — sin entered into the world;"' and the death 
penalty, which is in consequence of that first sin, 
had not been limited to the u one max," but had 
1 upon "all men." The word r.d^zz: — all — 
here, says \Viner. means -all who belong to the genus 



122 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

of man;" and the apostle adds that " death passed 
upon all, for that all have sinned."' Death could not 
pass upon beings who were in no sense sinners, but 
it has passed upon the "genus of man" the race, 
the humanity; therefore the race, the humanity, is 
sinful. It reaches earliest infancy ; therefore earliest 
infancy is reckoned in sin through Adam. 

The grammatical difficulty in the clause, "for that 
all have sinned," is in the words ty cJ, translated 
"for that." But without entering the discussion here, 
we only say that the argument of Paul requires us to 
understand the words emphatically as causal-conjunc- 
tive, as Luther, Neander, Muller, Stuart, Olshausen, 
Yenema, and others do, and read it, "Because all 
have sinned." And this by the terms of the argu- 
ment applies to infants. Witsius says that Augustine 
and most of the orthodox translated the words, "in 
whom all have sinned;" and he himself adopts the 
same, and says : " It is certain that ini, when joined 
to a dative, denotes in; as Matt, xiv, 8 — 'In a 
charger:' Rom. v, 14 — l In the similitude,' etc." 
But Erasmus says that when ini signifies upon or 
in it is joined to the genitive. Witsius admits, in 
the words "for that" the apostle "gives the reason 
of that assertion which he had before laid down, 
that by the sin of one man death passed upon all. 
This, says Paul, ought not to astonish you, for all 
have sinned." So that herein TVitsius himself gives 
up the point, and comes back to the translation, 
" because all have sinned." 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 12-) 

In the second canon established against Pelagius 
by the General Synod of the African Bishops, held 
at Carthage, A. 1). 418, the Angustinian sense of 
"in whom" is given, and children are accounted as 
having sinned in Adam. The canon says: "For what 
the apostle says, 'By one man sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin, and so death has passed to 
all men — in quo — in whom all have sinned,' is to 
be understood in no other way but as the catholic 
Church, every where diffused, has always understood 
it. For, according to this rule of faith, even little 
children, who have not yet been capable of commit- 
ting any sin in themselves, are thus truly baptized 
for the remission of sins, that what they derived by 
generation may be cleansed by regeneration." 

But the version of Augustine can be accounted for 
on theological grounds, if not on philological. He 
was led to contemplate human nature as a unit in 
Adam, and thus, in the language of Hagenbach, "he 
considered the human race as a compact mass, a col- 
lective body, responsible in its unity and solidarity." 
This led him to the following proposition : that " as 
all men have sinned in Adam they are justly sub- 
ject to the condemnation of God, on account of this 
hereditary sin and the guilt thereof." But the sin 
of infancy is not the sin of a personal act. Nor 
must the doctrine of the federal relation of Adam 
to his posterity, and which has given so widely 
popular a basis to systematic theology since the time 
of Cocceius, 1648, be so construed as to make the 



124 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

posterity of Adam justly liable for the penalty 
of his first transgression. It is by an abuse and 
overstraining of the metaphor of the apostle only 
that such extreme and revolting consequences are 
reached. Sin, anterior to any responsible action of 
the individual, can never create a sense of guilt, nor 
would God have suffered the propagation of the race 
leaving infants subject to hopeless wrath, or without 
a provision for their certain restitution. It is not, 
therefore, in this sense or to this extent that the 
race are accounted sinful for the sin of the first 
man; but they are sinners as being contrary to that 
holy and perfect nature in which man was created — 
contrary to the perfect rectitude of the law — pos- 
sessing a nature alien to God and disinclined to his 
commands. Venema translates the words in ques- 
tion thus: " Because all have sinned;" that is, he 
says, "all are depraved: they partake of the same 
sin which entered into the world; namely, depravity." 
In what sense infants are made sinners is thus de- 
fined by Bishop Taylor: "To be born of Adam," 
says he, " is to be born under sin ; that is, under 
such inclinations to it that as no man will remain 
innocent, so no man can of himself keep the law of 
God." Bishop Pearson says : " Any corruption and 
inclination in the soul, to do that which God for- 
biddeth, and to omit that which God commandeth, 
howsoever such corruption and inclination came into 
the soul, whether by an act of his own will, or by an 
act of the will of another, is A six, as being something 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 126 

duaonant and repugnant to the law of God.'' It is 
this defection of our nature from the originally pure 
and perfect standard, this aptitude and inclination to 
things repugnant to the law of God, which is the 
state of sinfulness in winch we are born — a state con- 
stituted or brought upon us by the act of the one 
man, Adam. But to whatever extent, or in what- 
ever sense infanta are constituted sinners by Adam's 
offense, to the same extent, and in a sense equally 
real and personal, are they justified or made right- 
eous by Christ. "For as by one man's disobedience 

THE MANY WERE CONSTITUTED SLXXERS, SO by the 

obedience of one shall the maht be constituted 

RIGHTEOUS." 

The antitheses in the fore^oinsr argument of Paul 

o o o 

are in every sense complete. The injury done to 
our nature by the first transgression finds a sover- 
eign and efficacious remedy through the second 
Adam. The terms employed are all of marked and 
well-defined significance in Scripture usage, and the 
point of the argument can not be evaded. If any 
man affirm that infants are in a state of sin, con- 
demnation, or death, by nature, we admit it on the 
warrant of Scripture; but by the same authority we 
further affirm they are in a state of justification, 
righteousness, and life, by grace. " The grace of 
God and the gift by grace hath abounded unto the 
many" — the total number who are injured by the 
sin of Adam. This grace, as it first comes to them, 
is unconditional, absolute, and efficacious. It comes 



126 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

to them, not by faith, not through any human agency, 
not by the piety of parents, nor the use of outward 
ordinances, but directly and sovereignly from " the 
one man, Jesus Christ." It is the fruit of atone- 
ment, the triumph of redeeming love over the ma- 
lignity of the first transgression. It does not remove 
all the personal effects of the first transgression upon 
the descendant; the seeds of disease and death are 
still in the mortal body, the nature is yet faulty, 
prone to evil of itself, with an undue intensity of ap- 
petite, passion, and desire, or, as Augustine called it, 
concupiscence — concupiscentia — but the legal liability 
to condemnation and wrath is removed; and the per- 
sonal unfitness of the soul as a moral entity involved 
in the race and ancestry and common nature of 
transgressors is removed, and a righteousness all of 
grace provided and imparted, which infallibly lifts 
our humanity to heaven, unless forfeited in maturer 
life by the voluntary rejection of its benefits. Such 
is Paul's doctrine. His argument is complete, it can 
not be added to or annulled. If the sin of Adam 
has abounded in evil effects upon our common hu- 
manity, unconditionally depraving our common na- 
ture, and becoming the occasion of all actual sin, so 
has the obedience and grace of Christ super abounded 
in all saving effects, unconditionally to our infant 
race, and conditionally upon repentance and faith to 
all responsible human beings. We say with Clement 
of Rome, who wrote in the same century with Paul: 
"Let us consider, therefore, brethren, whereof we 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 127 

were made; who and what kind of persons we came 
into this world, as if it were [as to our depravity] 
out of a sepnleher, and from utter darkness. He 
that made and formed us brought us into Ins own 
world, having prepared for us his ben* re we 

born." 
II. Again, we cite Matt, xviii, 1-14, as proof of 
the gracious state of infants. The entire force and 
legitimacy of our argument here depend upon the 
assumption that children proper — children prior to 
the age of accountability, except in verse 6, to be 
noticed hereafter, are the subject of our Lord's dis- 
course throughout. This is the position we take : 
from verses 3 to 14 our Lord discourses upon chil- 
dren proper; at verse 15 the discourse takes a turn 
upon the duties and relations of adult Christians 
toward each other. This suits the occasion. That 
occasion was marked and memorable. The apostles 
had mistaken the character of Christ's kingdom ; had 
equally mistaken the character of its true members, 
an»d the duties of its chief ministers ; and had in- 
dulged in worldly emulations and disputes. To cor- 
rect all these errors our Lord enters somewhat at 
large into discourse upon the nature of his kingdom, 
the conditions of membership, the character and 
duties of members, and the humility, self-denial, and 
unworldliness of its true ministers. He begins, as 
we said, with infant members, and continues to verse 
14: he then turns the discourse upon the mutual 
duties of adult members. 



128 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

We earnestly invite the most candid and critical 
attention of the reader to the several steps of the 
argument, believing that, however it may lie against 
his former prejudices and habits of exposition, it de- 
serves his thorough scrutiny and candid judgment. 

1. First of all, then, mark the circumstances in 
which our Lord introduces the discourse. He " called 
a little child and set him in the midst of them," 
verse 2. Mark says — chap, ix, 36 — Jesus "took this 
child in his arms, and said unto them/' etc. This 
circumstance determines the very tender age of the 
child. We may suppose that the Savior held the 
child in his arms during the entire discourse. The 
point we make here is simply that our Lord begins 
the discourse by calling attention to a little child 
which he actually held in his arms. The discourse 
began upon children; the moral of the discourse can 
not weaken this fact. 

2. As our Lord commenced the discourse by mak- 
ing a little child the basis of comparison and princi- 
pal subject of remark, we must suppose that when, 
afterward, in the same connection, he uses the term 
"child" or "little one" he means such a "child," or 
"little one," as the one which he first presented to 
view, and which he is still holding in his arms, that 
same specimen child, unless the nature of the case, 
or some specially qualifying terms, shall show to the 
contrary. The point lies here : the words " little 
child," and " little ones," must be understood either in 
a literal sense, as denoting children proper, or else 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 129 

in a figurative sense, as denoting adult Christian 
disciples, who resemble children in moral disposition. 
Now, as our Lord began with the literal application 
o-f these terms, we must suppose he continues the 
same throughout the subject, unless it becomes 
necessary to assume the figurative meaning, in order 
to make good sense. If no such necessity rise, it is 
in violation of one of the fundamental laws of inter- 
pretation to depart from the literal and seek for a 
figurative meaning. We take the ground that no 
such necessity exists. 

For, first, there is nothing affirmed of these " little 
ones" which may not be affirmed of children proper. 
Throughout the entire discourse our Lord simply 
says of them that they are to be "received in his 
name," and this duty Luke ix, 48, applies directly 
and literally to children, " Whoso shall receive this 
child in my name," etc. ; also that these " little ones " 
are "not to be despised;" that "their angels do 
always behold the face of God in heaven;" that "the 
Son of man came to seek and to save " them ; and 
that it is "not the will of God that one of them 
should perish." Whence, then, arises the necessity 
for assuming that our Lord intended adult disciples by 
the appellation "little ones?" The assumption is not 
made necessary or relevant by the nature of the case, 
or the predicates of the subject. 

But, secondly, the use of the demonstratives dbro^ 
and toco~jtoz — this and such — is decisive here. Having 
taken the child in his arms, he says : " Except ye be 



130 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

converted and become [d>c ra jrawla] as these little 
children" etc. — the article here having the force of 
the pronoun. And again: "Whosoever, therefore, 
shall humble himself [d»c to nacoiov touto'] as THIS 
little child;" again, " Whoso shall receive one [jzacdiov 
Toiouzou] such little child;" again, "Take heed that 
ye despise not one of \_fiapwv tovtcop] these little 
ones;" and, finally, " It is not the will of your Father 
which is in heaven that one of [ficxp&v toutcov] these 
little ones should perish." These are all the in- 
stances — except verse 6 — wherein allusion is made to 
the "little ones." Mark here the force of the pro- 
nouns this, these, such. That nacocov touto — this little 
child — in verse 4, refers to the identical child which 
Christ held in his arms, no one doubts. But in the 
very next verse, and in closest connection with this, 
our Lord says : " Whoso shall receive one [nawtou 
tocoutou] such little child, in my name," etc. 
The demonstrative tocouto^ — such, of such hind — 
indicates a hind or sort which had already been de- 
fined. It relates to some antecedent noun represent- 
ing the hind, sort, or species which the pronoun such 
here distinguishes. But what is that noun, and what 
that species? It is the Ttatoiov — little child — men- 
tioned in verse 4, and which the Savior had called to 
him and then held in his arms. To assume any other 
antecedent is to travel out of the text and resort to 
hypothesis against the laws of grammatical connec- 
tion. Precisely the same may be said in regard to 
every subsequent occurrence of toutcov — these. " It 



RELATION OF CniLDIIOOD TO CHRIST. 131 

is a law of the Greek demonstratives," says a living 
Greek critic, "that ouroc and zoco^zo- refer to an an- 
tecedent recently mentioned, with which they are coex- 
tensive, while zotoadz and bos refer to something yet 
to be mentioned.'.' To understand rzacoiov — little 
chill — therefore, in the second verse, literally, as all 
must, and the demonstratives referring to it figura- 
tively, as some do, is a violation of one of the plainest 
laws of language. Throughout the connection no 
other antecedent noun explaining and representing 
the class, kind, or species to which these demonstra- 
tives allude appears, except the original xacdiov — little 
child — introduced by our Lord at the beginning of 
his discourse. 

Thirdly, the scope and pertinency of our Lord's 
discourse more fitly determines the appellation "little 
ones," to children in age than to adult Christians. 
He introduces a little child as a symbol of humility 
and a representative of the subjects of his kingdom, 
and commences to warn them against offending, reject- 
ing — not "receiving" — despising, and neglecting the 
"little ones." Now, we could not suppose that the 
twelve apostles were in danger of thus treating gen- 
uine adult disciples, accredited as such, however hum- 
ble they might be; this would suppose them in a 
worse moral and doctrinal condition than the evan- 
gelical history, or our Lord's admonition, authorizes. 
Luke, indeed, introduces John as saying he " saw 
one casting out devils in Christ's name, and forbade 
him, because he followed not them." But John did 



132 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

not accept this person as a true disciple. He forbade 
him, not because he was of humble gifts and preten- 
sions, but because he doubted the genuineness and 
orderly character of his discipleship. The apostles 
were not in danger of contentiously rejecting adult 
disciples, accredited as such, but their views of the 
kingdom of Christ at this time were such as that they 
might have need of these cautious and admonitory 
instructions in regard to little children. It might not 
have impressed them that " of such was the kingdom 
of heaven" to be composed, and their apostolic duty 
to children might never have once seriously entered 
their thoughts. But especially in verse 14, unless 
children in age are intended, the argument becomes 
insignificant and pointless. For our Lord to say sol- 
emnly, as the summing up of a most thrilling dis- 
course, that " it is not the will of God that one genuine 
adult disciple should perish," would be trifling. But 
if he means the infant members of our race here, 
the declaration is in point, and a glorious republica- 
tion of a doctrine dear to the heart of every Hebrew. 
It was also in point to admonish them that the new 
kingdom he was about to set up embraced the sub- 
stance and prototype of the Old Testament Church 
touching children. 

Luke sets down the moral of our Lord's discourse 
on this occasion thus : " For he that is least among 
you all, the same shall be great." In this, also, 
Mark agrees. This is precisely Matthew's statement : 
"Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as this 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 

little child, the same is g in the kingdom of 

11 . I quote the language of Hernias, who 
wrote a few year? later than the Evangelists, we may 
say. •* Whosoever, therefore, shall continue as infants. 
without malice, shall be more honorable than all 
of whom I have yet spoken : for all infants are valued 
by the L si emed first of all:" that is. held 

in the first rank — the very sentiment of Christ, and 
worthily express this apostolic father. The in- 

culcation of humility, and a rebuke of their conten- 
tious aspirations to be the "greatest." was the point 
of the m of this discourse about children : but 

all this in no wise makes against the literal application 
of the discourse to children as given by Matthew. 
The literal part, which was dilated, and which Mat- 
thew has given in its entire connections, became the 
•f the moral and figurative teaching ; nay, fur- 
ther, the enlargement of our L:: Pa - rarse, at this 
moment, upon little children, gave breadth and force 
to the admonition, as calcu" call them down to 

humbler themes, and as contrasting the drift of the 
r's thoughts with that of the disci}" 58, 
3. In verse 6. which we have sogg rted was a 
slight exception to the uniform use of patpmi — little 
— in this discourse, our Lord still speaks of chil- 
dren proper, children, we may suppose, of the age of 
five to ten years, children old enough to form some 
notions of right and wrong, old enough to •'believe 
in Christ." And when we consider that faith is one 
of the very earliest growths of the child's mind, and 



134 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

that some knowledge of right and wrong, and of re- 
ligious relation and duty — to the instructed child — 
appears quite as early as the above ages, and that 
these first germs of infantile piety, while they are 
easily crushed and blighted, are of unspeakable worth 
to the life and character in later years ; and when, 
also, we consider that hundreds of witnesses may be 
summoned from the living, and from the records of 
the pious dead, whose faith in Christ dates back to 
the tender age of five or six to ten years, who, as 
Justin Martyr says of many in his day, "were dis- 
cipled to Christ in their childhood;'"' when all these 
things are considered, I say, we offer no force to the 
sense of words nor the occasion and scope of our 
Lord's discourse, nor to known facts in nature and in 
history, by understanding the Savior as speaking in 
the 6th verse of little children who first begin to 
learn the lessons of evangelical faith and the answer 
to prayer. Indeed, what else can he mean, when, 
with a "little child'' in his arms, and children as the 
subject of his discourse, he says to the disciples, 
" Whoso shall offend pva x&v fuxp&p tout&v tcov 
Tuareoovroiv e*c l/*e] o^ E [ tnat is? 0XE single one] 
of these little believers in me, it were better 
for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, 
and that he were drowned, in the depths of the sea.'*' 
Mark and Luke both relate this incident in our 
Lord's history, and both keep an exclusive reference 
to children throughout. Matthew, in this case, as is 
his custom, brings together more largely than the 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 185 

other Evangelists the several parts of our Lord's dis- 
course, but never once breaks the unity of the sub- 
ject, or takes his eye oft' from the "little children." 

It may not be improper to remark that the same 
child which Jesus held in his arms may have sup- 
plied the occasion for this solemn caution against 
offending "little ones who believe." 

Matthew sa}'s, "Jesus called a little child to him." 
This "calling" the child would indicate it was of an 
age to walk, yet his taking it in his arms would 
still determine it to be in its infantile stage. Now, 
we know that religious faith manifests itself in child- 
hood often as early as the age of four or five years. 
Possibly, in this same child which he held in his 
arms the first and tender est stage of faith already 
appeared, which a worldly, unspiritual Church and 
ministry would overlook, and with careless step be 
likely to crush in the germ. We make no account 
of the tradition that this child which Jesus called was 
afterward the great Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch; w r e 
only say it is not impossible that he should have al- 
ready discovered to the eye of Jesus the beginnings 
of that faith which called forth the peculiar language 
of verse 6. Be this as it may, a child of tenderest 
years seems obviously intended — one whose immature 
powers were inadequate to judge, reason, and pro- 
tect itself, and for that cause was exposed to the 
greatest liability to spiritual injury. In fine, through- 
out this discourse of our Lord the helplessness and 
dependence of these "little ones" are constantly as- 



136 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

sumed, and it is this assumption which gives peculiar 
point and force to his admonitions. 

4. An instance strongly corroborative of the posi- 
tion here taken as to the meaning of verse 6, is found 
in Matt, x, 40-42. The whole passage reads thus : 
"He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that re- 
ceiveth me receiveth Him that sent me. He that re- 
ceiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet, shall re- 
ceive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a 
righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall 
receive a righteous man's reward. And whosoever 
shall give to drink, unto one of these little ones, a 
cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, 
verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his re- 
ward." The question arises, Who is intended by the 
" little ones" in the last verse? The natural force of 
the language employed seems to make the under- 
standing of little children necessary. For, first, the 
enumeration of persons, or characters, here is so full 
as to authorize the assumption that our Lord in- 
tended to cover all classes and grades of discipleship. 
This we must suppose, unless we take some of the 
titles as tautological, which can not be admitted. 
Then, again, our Lord observes a regularly-descend- 
ing grade, a sort of inverted climax, in the order of 
this enumeration, which again forces upon us the be- 
lief that by u little ones" he means children. For 
instance, our Lord first mentions apostles — "he that 
receiveth f ou," etc. ; next to apostles he places 
"prophets" — izpotpfjTiqv — a word in the New Testa- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 137 

ment sense denoting a public teacher who speaks 
under a Divine commission and influence ; then lie 
mentions the " righteous man" — dixacou — the designa- 
tion every where given to the adult disciple, or wor- 
shiper of God ; last of all he brings into the enumer- 
ation the " little ones" — fuxpwv — who are also "dis- 
ciple*" — fiadirjral — "Whosoever shall give to one of 
these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a 
disciple" etc. The "little ones," therefore, were 
"disciples;" they were little children in whom the 
germs of Christian faith and piety appeared, and who, 
hence, belonged to the great Christian family. 

On any other assumption there must be unmean- 
ing tautology in the words of Christ ; but in this 
view how beautiful the gradation observed in the class- 
ifications of the Savior — apostle, prophet, righteous 
man, little one ! The apostle and p> ro phet represented 
all official dignity in discipleship ; the righteous man 
represented all unofficial, genuine adult discipleship; 
the little one is brought in with characteristic benig- 
nity by the Savior, as otherwise likely to be over- 
looked by the proud world, and even by the less 
thoughtful of the Church. These, also, must be min- 
istered to " in the name of a disciple" and the con- 
descending love of God will reward the smallest acts 
of favor fraternally and religiously bestowed upon 
them. 

This view seems further confirmed by close atten- 
tion to the sense to be affixed to the term dixaco^ — 

righteous man. If this word, according to its common 

12 



138 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD 

usage, denotes a genuine disciple whose tvorJcs attest 
the genuineness of his discipleship, and who is thus 
contradistinguished from all others who are not genu- 
ine, or from open transgressors, then there is no 
reason for introducing another word, as pcxpbv — 
little one — to denote a humble disciple, because this 
would be comprehended in the former word. There 
was occasion for using two descriptions of official 
grade of discipleship, as apostles and prophet, because 
here was a real distinction; but there was no occa- 
sion for distinguishing between any supposed grades 
of adult, unofficial discipleship, as by calling one 
righteous — dixcuoz — and the other humble — fiexpoQ. If, 
therefore, the former term — dcxato; — comprehended 
all that is implied in genuine adult discipleship, then 
it is clear that the latter term — prxobc, — must bear 
in it some further specialty of signification not in- 
cluded in adult discipleship, and this would throw us 
back to the only remaining signification, namely, that 
of childhood discipleship, which we have adopted. 
Now, that the word dixaco^ — righteous man — in the 
passage in question, does denote a genuine adult dis- 
ciple, is proved from its uniform use throughout the 
New Testament. I say adult disciple, because the 
force of the word righteous lies in the idea of obe- 
dience, conformity to laiv, rectitude of life, and there- 
fore more commonly implies mature responsibility. 
Instance such passages as the following: " He send- 
eth rain on the just and on the unjust;" "I am not 
come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance;" 






RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 180 

"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in 
the kingdom of their Father;" "He shall sever the 
wicked from the just;" "There shall be a resurrec- 
tion of the dead, both of the just and the unjust;" 
" The just shall live by faith ;" " Abel obtained wit- 
ness that he was righteous;" "If the righteous 
scarcely be saved;" "He that is righteous let him 
be righteous still," etc. Matt, v, 45; and ix, 13; 
and xiii, 43, 49; Mark ii, 17; Acts xxiv, 15; 
Rom. i, 17; Heb. xi, 41; 1 Pet. iv, 18; Rev. xxii, 
11. Such is the usage of the word in the New Testa- 
ment. We say, therefore, that the natural force and 
comprehensiveness of the words employed by our 
Lord in Matt, x, 40-42, the enumeration of different 
classes and offices of discipleship, and the descending 
grade, or inverted climax, observed in the order of 
this enumeration, all combine to fix upon the word 
fjuxpcov — little ones — in the passage, the sense of 
childhood discipleship, the stage of pure and tenderest 
shoots of infantile piety. And to all this it may be 
added that such a sense would be in accordance with 
our Lord's practice on other occasions of bringing 
children before the notice of the apostles. We say, 
then, that this passage, as it relates to children, is 
a parallel of Matt, xviii, 6. 

5. Finally, in verse 14 of Matt, xviii, our Lord 
concludes his discourse in respect to little children, 
and by a very natural law of suggestion turns to a 
kindred subject — the mutual relation and duties of 
adult members of his kingdom. This change of topic 



140 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

is marked by every natural indication of language. 
First, the adversative particle Sk — moreover — stands 
in its proper place, denoting a transition as well as 
continuation of thought— "Moreover, I say unto you," 
etc. Secondly, we meet no more with the recurrence 
of rioxoiov — little child — or fjuxpwu — little ones — these 
are dropped from the discourse. But, thirdly, we 
meet the appropriate title which is every where given 
to adult disciples, and to such only, the title adefyoz — 
brother — "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass 
against thee," etc. And, finally, the whole tenor of 
duties, cautions, encouragements, offenses, Church 
powers, and other statements of our Lord, show 
clearly that he is speaking to adults as such, just as 
he had been previously speaking of children as such. 

If, then, in Matt, xviii, 1-14, our Lord speaks 
throughout of little children, of whose age and ca- 
pacity the one he held in his arms was a representa- 
tive — except, possibly, in verse 6 — our next inquiry 
is, What did he affirm of them? What did he say 
of them, from which toe may gather information of 
their moral state? 

(1.) The fact that our Lord not only makes them 
the ground of comparison in setting forth the char- 
acter of a true member of his kingdom, but presents 
them as models of the genuine spirit and qualities of 
discipleship, implies that children themselves are 
legitimate members of the kingdom of God. It is 
true that genuine disciples are elsewhere compared to 
"sheep," to the "branches" of a vine, to "salt," to 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 141 

" light," and to other objects. In every such com- 
parison there is a quality of resemblance, though 
nothing that can imply moral quality or character. 
The nature of the case sufficiently determines, in any 
instance, whether a moral or only a natural principle 
is involved as belonging to the subject of compari- 
son, as either the proximate or primary ground of 
similitude. 

We have not space to dilate this argument, but we 
prefer to think with Neander, that " Christ could not 
have used those and similar expressions in commend- 
ation of what existed in children as an undeveloped 
bud, if he had not recognized in them a divine im- 
press, a glimmering knowledge of -God." 

And, again, the same writer says : " By making 
children a model, Christ recognized in them not only 
the undeveloped spirit of self, but also the undevel- 
oped consciousness of God, striving after its original. 
The whole transaction — of Matt, xix, 13-15 — illus- 
trates the tone with which Christ goes to meet the 
dawning sense of God in human nature." Indeed, it 
is difficult to conceive by what law of fitness or si- 
militude one human being who is not a Christian can 
be set forth as the chosen and standing model of one 
that is. 

(2.) But the gracious moral state of infants, their 
oneness with Christ, is necessarily implied in verse 5 : 
" Whosoever, therefore, shall receive one such little child 
in my name, receiveth me." Luke is still more explicit; 
he says: "Whosoever shall receive [touzo to 7zacdio>~\ 



142 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

this little child in my name receiveth me." 
Luke ix, 48. Mark says : " ev rwv tocoutwv natdcajv — 
one of such children" Here, then, to receive a child 
in Christ's name is an act of such religious import, 
and so pleasing to Christ, that it is accepted by- 
Christ as if he himself were received. The act is 
rewarded as if done to Christ. The point here to be 
noticed is the identification of children, under the 
Gospel or redemptive economy, with Christ. If they 
were not " in Christ" if they were not Christ's, it 
would be impossible to receive them "in his name" 
according to the well-known and marked import of 
that phrase in the New Testament. To receive one 
in the name of another is to receive him as his per- 
sonal friend or representative. Stier explains this 
loving reception for Christ's name's sake thus : " Be- 
cause Christ has received them, and because Christ 
will that they be received." The standing idea of 
the word "receive" where it defines a duty of one 
Christian to another, or of the Church to individuals, 
is to admit to brotherhood. It is an act of Christian 
recognition and fellowship. See the use of the word 
in Acts xv, 4; Rom. xiv, 1; 2 Cor. vii, 2; Phil, ii, 
29 ; 2 John, 10 ; 3 John, 8, 10. But to receive in 
Christ's name is much more emphatic. Mark decides 
the meaning of this phrase by direct explanation. 
In chap, ix, 41, he quotes the language of Christ 
thus: "For whosoever shall give you a cup of water 
to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, 
verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward." 



RELATION OP CUILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 143 

The word- i$e ye belong to Ohrist" are explan- 

atory of the words "in my name'' To do an act to 
another in Christ's name, therefore, is to do it be- 
cause he belongs to Christ. Thus the phrase, in my 
7iam<\ is equal to the phrase, in the Christian profes- 
sion and fellowship, as the New Testament usage and 
the direct authority of Mark decide. See this sense 
fully established in the use of this form of speech, 
Matt, x, 41, 42. Observe, then, here is a duty com- 
manded, to receive children in Christ's name, and the 
very terms of this command prove that children be- 
long to Christ as the spiritual members of his family 
and kingdom, and our act of obedience to this com- 
mand acknowledges this fact. 

As to the question, How is this duty of receiving 
children in Christ's name to be fulfilled? though it is 
not our present business to answer, yet it may be 
observed that children are to be acknowledged by the 
Church as the legitimate heirs of the kingdom, and 
entitled to family or fraternal recognition in its 
visible membership. The virtue of this recognition is 
to the effect of securing to them all the benefits of 
Church influence, nurture, and care, which their age 
and capacity require. But the first official act of 
receiving children in Christ's name, and recognizing 
them as of the true Christian family, is by the ordi- 
nance of baptism, which is the standing sign and seal 
of discipleship. The direct argument here pending, 
however, is that the command of Christ to receive 
children in his name proves, by the very terms of 



144 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the precept, their gracious state and spiritual mem- 
bership. If children had been regarded by Christ as 
in the light of aliens to his kingdom, subjects of 
wrath, such as they are by nature and apart from 
grace, he could never have used such language as 
this. But all is plain when we consider them as re- 
deemed beings, and by grace united to, and living in, 
the heart of Christ. 

(3.) In verse 6 we are cautioned against "offend- 
ing" that is, placing an occasion of sin in the ivay 
of — oxavdaMOTj — one of these little ones ; and in verse 
10 we are further cautioned against "despising" that 
is, lightly esteeming, neglecting them. The despising 
and offending here are the direct antitheses of "re- 
ceiving" in verse 5. This caution is enforced by two 
arguments: 1. "In heaven their angels [the angels 
of children] do always behold the face of my Father 
which is in heaven;" 2. "The Son of man is come 
to saye that which was lost." The "lost" here com- 
prehends the human family; but by the connections 
of the passage specifically points out the " little ones," 
in the preceding verse, as its immediate grammatical 
and logical antecedent. The sequel — verse 14 — as 
well as the closest connection of the discourse, proves 
this. The words d.jyzloc abrcov — their angels — we 
understand to mean, according to the common ac- 
ceptation, their guardian angels, or then- ministering 
angels, not the departed souls of children. The apos- 
tles could not doubt that when the souls of children 
entered heaven they would behold the face of God; 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 14") 

but they might doubt that here, in their earthly state, 
God had such special care of them as to put them 
under charge of the highest order of angels. The 
scope of the passage, therefore, would require us to 
understand our Lord as speaking of the ministering 
angels of children, according to the Scripture doc- 
trine laid down in Heb. i, 14, where the angels are 
said to be all "ministering spirits sent forth to min- 
ister to those who shall be heirs of salvation." But 
if the angels are ministering spirits to the heirs of 
salvation, and if the higher angels are appointed over 
children, then children are heirs of salvation; and if 
then* angelic guardianship is specially honorable, so 
are they peculiarly precious in the eyes of the chief 
Lord and Shepherd. But in either construction of 
this remarkable verse the doctrine is the same as it 
regards the moral state of infants. Here is a divine 
care, a distinguished honor, a liberal grace extended 
to children; therefore let no man despise them or 
offend them; let them not overlook their claims and 
rights as being too insignificant for their notice and 
special care, nor lay in their way, either by any evil 
purpose or culpable neglect, an occasion of sin whereby 
they shall be turned out of the way of holiness. It 
was a religious despising as well as a religious offend- 
ing that our Lord was speaking against — a thinking 
lightly of their spiritual wants, their spiritual claims, 
their spiritual relations and destiny. " The Son of 
man came to save that which was lost;" therefore 

think not lightly of their spiritual state and welfare. 

13 



146 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

They are placed under the guardianship of the highest 
angels; therefore let not apostles, and ministers, and 
Churches neglect or offend them. 

(4.) In verse 14 our Lord says : " Even so it is not 
the will of your Father which is in heaven that one 
of these little ones should perish." This clause fol- 
lows as a conclusion upon the brief and beautiful 
parable of the lost sheep, which our Lord throws into 
the discourse to illustrate the seeking love and care 
of God. This proves that it was not the sole object 
of the Savior here to inculcate humility by the ex- 
ample and symbol of childhood, but to extend the 
views of the disciples upon the general plan of God 
respecting children, and the condescending and par- 
ticular love of God to them. The "little ones'' in 
this concluding clause are not adult disciples. The 
pertinency of our Lord's discourse would forbid such 
an application. It would seem trifling for him to 
aver, after a most thrilling discourse, in which chil- 
dren became at once the symbol and subject, that it 
was not the will of God that one genuine adult dis- 
ciple should perish. The disciples never doubted this. 
It was not involved in their original dispute, and was 
not relevant to the immediate occasion. But for the 
further rebuke of their high and worldly notions of 
Christ's kingdom, in which each desired to be greatest, 
it was seeming and natural for the Divine Savior to 
enlarge upon the relations of children to the Gospel 
scheme and the Gospel kingdom as involving their 
subsequent duty and apostolic care, and the compre- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 147 

hensive plan of Christ for extending his kingdom ovei 
the earth. 

The bearing of this concluding clause of verse 14 
on the duty of attending to the moral culture of chil- 
dren is obvious; but the point just here to be noticed 
is, that this passage in its connection directly affirms 
it to be the will of God to save children. They are 
in a state of salvation. It is the will of God to save 
them, and they have not yet opposed that will. If 
the will of God, the redeeming love of Christ, had 
not yet, and was not intended to, put them in a state 
of favor with God ; if all that God in Christ had 
done for them had not yet had the efficacy to redeem 
them from under the curse of the law, and place 
them in the favor of God; if still the}' were left in 
their native state of depravity, under its power, and 
had not been brought under the power of grace ; if 
this were the case, we can not see the propriety of 
the language used by Christ, nor can we see the 
relevancy of his cautioning and instructing the apos- 
tles to give the most special heed to the religious 
condition and wants of children, while God himself 
and the " Son of man," who came to save the lost, 
had not given them the first quickening principle of 
life, nor brought them under the reign of the kingdom 
of grace. Such a supposition contradicts the whole 
analogy of Bible doctrine respecting prevenient grace, 
no less than the argument of Christ in question. 

III. To all the foregoing we may add the ever- 
memorable and blessed declaration of our Lord, re- 



148 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. ' 

corded in Matt, xix, 14 ; " Suffer little children, and 
forbid them not, to come unto me; for of such is 
the kingdom OF heaven." Here, also, the strong, 
demonstrative toioutwp — SUCH — finds its antecedent 
in ra 7:0.101a — the little children — and the declara- 
tion is too literal, too direct and unequivocal to admit 
of doubt as to its meaning, and too precious to be- 
come the subject of frivolous criticism. Children be- 
long to the kingdom of God as legitimate heirs and 
subjects, and if so, according to the universal law of 
that kingdom, it is because they are made fit for it. 
And both the fitness and the consequent membership 
are the free gift and fruit of redeeming love. What 
our Lord affirms of children here, he affirms of chil- 
dren as such, of all children, not of any class or par- 
ticular number. 

It must be considered that the occasion of this last- 
quoted passage from Matt, xix, 14, is different from 
that of chap, xviii, just noticed. In the latter a child 
is introduced for an ulterior purpose; namely, to in- 
culcate humility. In the former children are brought 
to Christ not to become the symbol of Christian dis- 
cipleship ; not to furnish an illustration of moral 
teaching to adults ; but that they themselves may be 
blessed. The occasion began and terminated with 
the children. But even if we were to admit that in 
both passages a comparison is instituted between the 
dispositions of children and those of true disciples, 
we are bound to apply our Lord's words as positively 
to children as to adult disciples, otherwise we destroy 






RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 14!> 

the ground of the comparison. We can not deny the 
application of our Lord's words to children proper, 
■without sweeping away the basis of the metaphor, 
and thus annulling the force and pertinency of its 
moral application to adult believers. 

On the meaning of the phrase " kingdom of 
heaven,'' it should be observed that it is a compre- 
hensive phrase, denoting, in general, the reign or do- 
minion of Christ, or the grand scheme of the re- 
demptive economy administered and executed by 
Jesus Christ. Now, the earthly manifestation of this 
kingdom is either personal in the hearts of believers, 
or public and organic in the constitution of the visible 
Church. The word "church" — exx/^ala — occurs but 
twice in the Evangelists ; namely, in Matt, xvi, 18, 
and xviii, 17. The Jewish word bearing a similar 
import was synagogue. It was not proper that the 
Christians should adopt a strictly Jewish vocabulary ; 
this would introduce confusion, and would be incon- 
sistent with that distinctness and separation which 
our Lord intended. Neither was it proper for our 
Lord to introduce prematurely a new name to denote 
the congregation of his followers. The time of sepa- 
ration had not yet come. The Old Testament had 
spoken of Messiah's reign under the figure and title 
of a kingdom. John Baptist and Jesus adopted this 
title. But it is remarkable that in Matt, xvi, 18, 19, 
where our Savior first uses the word "church" he in- 
terchanges it with the word "kingdom." u Thou art 
Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church, 



150 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on 
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This 
"binding and loosing," according to Kabbinical usage, 
says Stier, is equivalent to " forbidding and allowing," 
censuring and acquitting. Taking the "keys" here 
as an emblem of power, authority, we have set forth 
the doctrine of apostolic investiture, of Church au- 
thority. The binding and loosing were to be done 
"on earth;" the "keys of the kingdom" were the 
keys of the Church, which is the earthly form and 
manifestation of the kingdom. The Church, here 
compared to a building founded on a rock and per- 
manent, was intrusted to the care of those to whom 
the builder committed the keys. Just here, then, 
where our Lord first introduces the new word church, 
he shows it to be the visible representative and 
earthly form of his kingdom, by making the words 
church and kingdom interchangeable. And this same 
use of the "keys" or authority of the Church, in the 
exercise of discipline, is brought out in Matt, xviii, 
18 ; the only other place where the word occurs in 
the evangelical history. Children are reckoned to the 
kingdom, the Church ; and let those who have the 
keys of Church authority and government take good 
heed that they abuse not then trust in excluding such 
as belong within its sacred pale. But particularly let 
it be observed, that when Christ himself, the "Head 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 151 

of the Church, the Lord of the kingdom, pronounces 
with authority that children, such as he could and 
did take up in his arms and bless, are members of the 
kingdom, or Church of God, he affirms of them all 
that moral state which involves fitness for eternal 
blessedness, and a title thereto. And this, as we 
have said, he affirms of children as such, not of any 
favorite class or special number. The words of Jesus 
are a beautiful response to the voice of the Old Test- 
ament — "Behold, children are Jehovah's inheritance, 
and the fruit of the womb his recompense." Psa. 
exxvii, 3. Glorious reward of the Redeemer's trav- 
ail — most of our race die in childhood ! 



152 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST— CONTINUED. 

Recapitulation of the Bible argument — Are infants regenerate ? — 
Bishop Hopkins's view — Dr. Wall — Dr. Waterland — Archbishop 
Seeker — Archbishop Usher — Bishop Bedell — Mr. Goode — Mr. Wes- 
ley — Richard Watson — Luther — Chrysostoin — Gregory Nazianzen — 
Coelestius — Dr. Some — The question stated — Meaning of yewdu (gen- 
nao) — John iii, 5 — Regeneration and life often synonymous — Use of 
<£am£u> {to illuminate) — Dr. Bomberger on infant regeneration — Regen- 
eration not baptism — Spiritual — Regeneration and conversion de- 
fined — New creature — Children capable of a principle of divine life — 
Bishop Beverage — Bishop Davenant — Bishop Taylor — Witsius — Dean 
Comber — Early Protestant divines — The subject again stated — St. 
Augustine — Bishop Taylor — Moral state of infants, dying or living, 
the same — Justification and regeneration mutually imply each other. 

What, then, is the doctrine of Scripture respecting 
the moral state of infants ? The ground already gone 
over deserves to be recapitulated, and the results 
stated with more special reference to theological opin- 
ion. We say, then, 

1. That children are declared "justified" — freed 
from the condemnation which fell upon our common 
humanity by the sin of Adam, and restored to favor 
through Christ, their second and more powerful rep- 
resentative. Rom. v, 16, 18. 

2. Children are made partakers of u the grace of 
God and the gift by grace, which hath abounded unto 
the many." Of this "grace of God," this "abund- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L58 

anee of grace and the gift of righteousness," they arc 
not only heirs, but "receivers" actual partakers, and 
on this ground only does the apostle confidently 
declare " they shall reign in life by one, Jesus 
Christ." Rom. v, 15, 17. 

3. They are "made righteous" through the obe- 
dience of Christ. The word "make" — xaOiazr^u — 
means to constitute, to cause to be; children are consti- 
tuted, caused to be, rigltteous. As truly as they were 
"constituted sinners" by the sin of Adam, and to the 
same extent, they are constituted righteous by Christ. 
The point of the idea here is, that this righteousness 
is not prospective and anticipatory, or contingent, but 
present and real. By the Divine act and in the 
Divine reckoning they are righteous through the merit 
of Christ, their second representative and Restorer. 
Rom. v, 19. If they were reckoned in Adam as if 
they had broken the precept, in Christ and through 
his perfect righteousness they are accounted as though 
they had fulfilled it. 

4. They are partakers of the " life " which is the 
fruit and end and distinguishing quality of their justi- 
fication. " The free gift came upon all men to justi- 
fication of life." Rom. v, 18. The expression e/c 
dcxaiwacv £a>9j£ — unto justification of life — stands ex- 
actly opposed to e^c xardxpe/ta — unto condemnation — 
in verse 18, and to ~f] aiiojrria iv tuj d avoir w — the sin 
unto death — verse 21. Here, then, is "sin to death" 
on the one side, and "justification to life" on the 
other. Adam brought in the former ; Christ, the glo- 



154 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

rious Restorer, brings in the latter. The points of 
the contrast are strongly drawn. But the point of 
our present statement specially relates to the words 
life and death. Do they denote the eternal conse- 
quences of sin and righteousness beyond the grave? 
or do they denote the present moral effect of sin and 
righteousness on the heart and character? The 
Scriptures every where teach that the life of God in 
the soul is eternal life begun. The life of grace 
here is the same, as to quality, as the life of glory 
hereafter. The " justification to life" is a justifica- 
tion which restores the dead soul to spiritual life here, 
and which, according to the tenor and purpose of 
grace, is to eventuate £?C ^wyv auovcov — in life eternal. 
On the basis of the same doctrine, our Lord says of 
the life of grace in the adult, "It is a fountain of 
water springing up [sfc faiiyv ahoviov\ into everlasting 
life." John iv, 14. The figure is inexpressibly 
beautiful. The spring, or fountain, which rises and 
flows over in the heart of the believer, flows God- 
ward, to and into eternal life, as a stream empties 
into the ocean. "Life eternal," says Bengel, "is the 
confluence of such fountains." The point to be no- 
ticed here is, that as all such passages as "justifica- 
tion of life," the "reigning of grace through right- 
eousness unto eternal life," "a fountain of [living] 
water in him springing up into eternal fife," establish 
the ultimate union of the spiritual life in the soul 
with eternal life hereafter, like the confluence of the 
stream with the ocean into which it empties ; so the 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 155 

quality of the life in the soul must be the same as 
that eternal life with God, in which it eventuates. 

And if this "justification of life" comes to infants at 
all, it proves them suscipients, in the same sense of 
the principle of true spiritual life. 

5. Children belong to the "kingdom of heaven." 
This beautiful and comprehensive summary of the 
■whole doctrine of infant salvation, in the express 
■words of Jesus, is decisive of their moral fitness for 
heaven. Matt, xix, 14. 

6. They are to be "received" in Christ's name, 
that is, as Mark — chap, ix, 41 — defines the words, 
" because they belong to Christ" Matt, xviii, 5. 

7. It is not the ivill of God that "one of these 
shoidd perish." 

8. The Church is warned not to "despise" them, 
as to their religious condition and claims. Matt, 
xviii, 10. 

9. They are the special objects of Divine care and 
angelic guardianship. Matt, xviii, 10. 

Such is the condition of childhood through the me- 
diation of grace; children come into this world with 
the imprint of the fall upon their physical and moral 
nature, but not legally liable for the failure of the 
Adamic dispensation. They are not born righteous 
and pure; that is, righteousness is not by virtue of 
natural generation, nor is purity the effect of natural 
innocence. Their nature is alienated from the life of 
God, and inclined only to evil. But aside from 
nature, and above nature, and counteractive of nature, 



156 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

grace comes to them through the sovereign act of the 
"one man, Christ Jesus." This grace changes their 
legal and moral condition so as to render them fit for 
and entitled to eternal life, but does not remove their 
natural depravity. It annuls the sentence of the law, 
justifies, implants a principle of spiritual life, brings 
them under a gracious economy of salvation suited to 
sinful beings, and puts them upon a new probation; 
but, as in the regenerated adult, it leaves them with a 
fallen nature, which, of itself, would lead them away 
from God, and against which a life-long conflict must 
be waged. As Augustine says, speaking of the evil 
proclivity of our nature in children: "Its criminality, 
indeed, is forgiven ; but itself remains : remains even 
after baptism." 

10. Still the question recurs, "Are infants in a re- 
generate state ?" This question, which we fear has come 
to be more technical than intelligible, more curious 
than edifying, we can not avoid here. But the answer 
can by no means be given by a simple yea or nay, 
because regeneration itself is a term which, in historic 
theology, has come to receive various significations. 
The answer, then, depends upon the definition given 
to this word. In the Church of England theology, 
where this subject is most thoroughly discussed, the 
sense in which children are regenerated has been 
abundantly difficult to settle and make plain. The 
lowest sense that has been resorted to by divines of 
that Church, is the introducing of children by baptism 
into a new state as to covenant duties, privileges, and 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 157 

blessings. Thus Bishop Hopkins, of the seventeenth 

conturv, calls this kind of regeneration "external and 
ecclesiastical." He says: "But here may some say. 
* If baptism doth not confer a real and internal regen- 
eration on infants, who partake thereof, how, then, is 
it that the Church hath appointed a prayer in the 
office of baptism, wherein we bless God that it hath 
pleased him to regenerate the baptized infant with his 
Holy Spirit?' To this I answer, that the baptismal 
regeneration of infants is external and ecclesiastical, 
. . . and they are said to be regenerated by his Holy 
Spirit, because they are regenerated by his public 
institution." The learned Dr. Wall affirms a similar 
sentiment with a more chastened phraseology, when 
he says : " It is plain enough of itself that infants are 
not capable of regeneration in any other sense of the 
word, than as it signifies baptism; I mean the out- 
ward act of baptism, accompanied with that grace or 
mercy of God whereby he admits them into covenant, 
though without any sense of theirs." This makes the 
entire grace of baptismal regeneration, of which alone 
infants are said to be capable, to consist of " that grace 
and mercy of God whereby he admits them into coye- 
nant." In another place he says : " Most of the 
pedobaptists go no further than St. Augustine does; 
they hold that God, by his Spirit, does, at the time of 
baptism, seal and apply to the infant that is there 
dedicated to him, the promises of the coyenant of 
which he is capable, namely, adoption, pardon of 
[original] sin, translation from the state of nature 



158 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

to that of grace, etc., on which account the infant is 
said to be regenerated of [or by] the Spirit; not 
that God does by any miracle at that time illuminate 
or convert the mind of the child. And for original 
sin, or the corruption of nature, they hold that God, 
by his covenant, does abolish the guilt of it, receives 
the child in his mercy in Christ, and consigns to him 
by promise such grace as shall afterward, by the use 
of means, if he live, be sufficient to keep it under," 
etc. But in all this phraseology there is an avoid- 
ance of terms which would involve the idea of a 
moral effect, or a principle of life, imparted, and the 
regeneration would seem to be rather formal and con- 
ventional, than real and spiritual. 

11. Others hold to a spiritual regeneration at bap- 
tism, by the joint operation of water and the Holy 
Spirit, in the case of all adult persons who receive 
the sacrament by faith, or worthily; and this is the 
current doctrine of the Liturgy and standard writers. 
But in the case of infants there is a diversity of sen- 
timent. The Augustinian theory, which views all 
mankind as a corrupted mass, Adam with his pos- 
terity, infants with adults, and all deserving eternal 
damnation for original sin, from which some only are 
rescued by the decree of election, has largely reap- 
peared in the English Church, and modified their 
views both of the condition of infants prior to bap- 
tism and the efficacy of baptism when administered. 
Perhaps it should be regarded as the more prevalent 
opinion of the divines of that Church, that the sacra- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 159 

ment of baptism is to be viewed in the light of a con- 
tract, which the baptismal recipient signs at baptism, 
and the Spirit ratifies whenever spiritual regeneration 
fully takes place, which, in the case of infants, is held 
to be at some subsequent date, when they personally 
believe and perform the duties of the covenant. 
Thus, Dr. Waterland, a learned divine of the last 
century, and a strenuous advocate for baptismal re- 
generation, says, speaking of children : 

"Their regeneration, begun in baptism, and left 
unfinished — like an indenture executed on one side 
only, or like a part without a counterpart — comes at 
last to be complete; that is, actually salutary, not by 
a formal regeneration, as if nothing had been done 
before, but by the repentance of the man, and by the 
sanctification or renovation of the heart and mind 
through the Spirit, which had been hitherto wanting." 
He says, " Regeneration may be granted and received, 
as in infants, where that renovation has no place at 
all for the time being." The regeneration of baptism 
he calls "the renewal of their state to God- ward," 
while " the renewing also of the heart may come gradu- 
ally on with their first dawnings of reason." To the 
same effect Archbishop Seeker says, "It is by no 
means necessary that a covenant should be executed 
by both the parties to it, at just the same time ;" and 
of infants who have been baptized, he says, that when 
they "ratify the engagement in their own persons," 
"it then becomes complete;" that is,- complete regener- 
ation then takes place with its concomitant blessings. 



160 THE RELIGION" OF CHILDHOOD. 

Archbishop Usher, in 1645, says : " The righteous- 
ness of Christ, and all the promises of grace, were, 
in my baptism, estated upon me, and sealed up unto 
me on God's part ; but then I come to have the 
profit and benefit of them when I come to understand 
what grant God in baptism hath sealed up unto me, 
and actually to lay hold upon it by faith." 

Bishop Bedell, 1630, says : " This I do yield to my 
Lord of Sarum most willingly, that the justification, 
sanctification, and adoption which children have in bap* 
tism is not the same as that which adults have." " You 
will perceive, I think," says he, " the nature of sacra- 
ments to be not as medicines, but as seals, to confirm 
the covenant, not to confer the promise immediately." 

The learned and candid Mr. Goode says : " In pro- 
ceeding, then, to examine the baptismal services [of 
the Church of England] for infants, I commence with 
the remark that I give the highest sense to the bless- 
ing spoken of in the prayers and thanksgivings of- 
fered. I do not believe that the blessing there meant 
is only an introduction into the visible Church, or any 
thing less than spiritual regeneration." But then he 
immediately goes on to show that these spiritual 
blessings are conditioned upon the pledges and prom- 
ises made by the sponsors for the child, and that 
"the baptismal blessing is only to be expected in the 
case of infants that reach adult age, when what is 
then promised is performed." Still he admits that 
" there may be, if it please God, an immediate effect 
from the rite of baptism in the case of infants. The 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 1G1 

seeds of faith and repentance may be implanted by 
God at the earliest age 3 and adoption into God's 
family take place in the fullest sense at baptism." 
But even in these cases it must be observed that, as 
respects those who live to adult age, " such adoption 
takes place in the prospective contemplation of the 
acts of faith and repentance following in their due 
season." The obscurity and often retractive form of 
statements in writers of this school are but the nat- 
ural disturbances which erroneous principles occasion 
in the processes of the understanding. Had the sub- 
ject been submitted to a strictly Bible test, with less 
reverence for the theories of antiquity respecting the 
efficacy of the sacraments, there would have resulted 
a clearer and more intelligible phraseology. "When 
shall Christian theology become more Biblical? 

Mr. Wesley seems to have admitted the current 
doctrine of infant regeneration at baptism, and cer- 
tainly argues against any absurdity in the doctrine. 
He says, in his sermon on " The New Birth :" " A 
man may be 'born of water' and not be 'born of the 
Spirit.' There may sometimes be the outward sign 
where there is not the inward grace. I do not now 
speak with regard to infants. It is certain our 
Church [the Church of England] supposes that all 
who are baptized in their infancy are at the same 
time born again ; and it is allowed that the whole 
office for the baptism of infants proceeds upon this 
supposition. Nor is it an objection of any weight 

against tins, that we can not comprehend how this 

14 



162 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

work can be wrought in infants; for neither can we 
comprehend how it can be wrought in a person of 
riper years. But whatever be the case with infants, 
it is sure all of riper years who are baptized are not 
at the same time born again." 

The Rev. Richard Watson, in enumerating the 
benefits of baptism to infants, says : " It Qjaptism] 
secures the gift of the Holy Spirit, in those secret 
spiritual influences, by which the actual regeneration 
of those children who die in infancy is effected; and 
which are a seed of life in those who are spared, to 
prepare them for instruction in the Word of God, as 
they are taught, by parental care, to incline their 
will and affections to good, and to begin and main- 
tain in them the war against inward and outward 
evil," etc. 

In both these quotations from Methodist standards 
it is clearly held that no objection, arising from the 
nature of the case, or from Scripture doctrine, can 
lie against the possibility of infant regeneration in 
the spiritual sense, or the certainty of it in given 
cases. As to the bearing of the quotations on the 
efficacy of baptism, the language suits the first or 
transition period of Methodism, when she had scarcely 
yet separated from the Church of England, and, in 
common with the Liturgy and the Churchmen of that 
age, held a phraseology conformable to that of the 
Christian fathers. Since that day Methodism has 
developed more its own peculiar individuality, and a 
more appropriate and cautious terminology. 



RELATION OF CHILDIIOOD TO CHRIST. 103 

Luther taught, in his service for infant baptism, 
1524, a spiritual regeneration by water and the 
Holy Ghost, in the case of every child who be- 
lieved — for he held to the notion that children must 
have true faith to be saved. He directs to be said, 
after the baptism of the child : " Almighty God, and 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath re- 
generated THEE BY WATER AND THE HOLY GHOST, 
and forgiven all thy sins, strengthen thee by his 
grace unto eternal life." 

This is the current error of antiquity, to connect 
the grace of childhood necessarily, or at least gen- 
erally, with baptism. The doctrine of the early 
Church is thus stated by Chrysostom, in the fourth 
century : " It is for this reason we baptize also in- 
fants, though they are not like others stained with 
sin, that so holiness, justification, adoption, heirship, 
and brothership ivith Christ may be imparted to them 
through Christ, that so they may be members of 
Christ." 

Gregory Nazianzen, of the same century, as quoted 
by Neander, held that "baptism was to children a 
seal, a means of securing human nature in the germ 
against all moral evil, by the higher principle of life 
communicated to it." Hence, he looks upon infant 
baptism, says Neander, as a consecration to the 
priestly dignity, which is imparted to the child from 
the beginning, that so evil may gain no advantage 
over him. But in no instance does the force of the 
traditional and prevalent doctrine of the early Church 



164 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

appear more absolute than in the admission of Coeles- 
tius, who, in setting forth the Pelagian creed, wherein 
it was of the highest importance to his argument to 
show, if possible, the error of the Church both in re- 
spect of the practice of infant baptism and its effi- 
cacy, concedes the whole thus : 

"Infants must, according to the rule of the uni- 
versal Church, according to the declaration of the 
Gospel, be baptized in order to the forgiveness of sins, 
since our Lord has determined that the kingdom of 
heaven can be bestowed only on the baptized; and 
since the powers of nature are not adequate to this, 
it must be the free gift of grace." 

From the time of Augustine, and as the fruit of 
his controversy with Pelagius on the points of pre- 
destination, free will, original sin, and the import and 
efficacy of sacraments, " baptism," in the language 
of Baur, quoted by Hagenbach, " received a higher 
dogmatic importance. The assertion of its necessity 
is one of the points of difference between Pelagius 
and Augustine." Pelagius denied the necessity of 
infant baptism in order to the forgiveness of sin, but 
admitted it in order to the obtaining a meetness for 
the kingdom of God. Augustine held that baptism 
cleanses children from original sin, and there was no 
salvation without it. Many of the English divines 
used language not less severe. Thus Bishop Jewel: 
"For this cause are infants baptized, because they are 
born in sin, and can not become spiritual but by this 
new birth of the water and the spirit.' 9 Bichard Hooker, 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 1*>5 

tlie champion of the Established Church in the latter 

part of the sixteenth century, says : " Baptism is the 
door of our actual entrance into God's house, the first 
apparent beginning of life, a seal, perhaps, to the 
grace of election before received, BUT TO OUR sancti- 

FICATION HERE A STEP WHICH HATH NOT ANY BEFORE 

it." Bishop Pearson, in his tenth article on the 
Creed, says: "Baptism is infallibly efficacious as to 
this particular, that is, to the remission of cell sins 
committed before the administration of the sacrament." 
He supposes, however, that it is "received with all 
qualifications necessary in the person accepting, and 
conferred with all things necessary to be performed 
by the person administering." As children have 
these prerequisite qualifications, they, of course, are 
"infallibly" washed from all original or hereditary 
impurity. In the Church of England service for 
Infant Baptism, after the sacrament, the priest says : 
" We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, 
that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant ivith 
thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own child 
by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy 
Church." The doctrine of Dr. Pusey and the Tract- 
arians is, that "the connection between spiritual re- 
generation and water baptism is essential," wherever 
the ordinance is validly administered. The doctrine 
of the Church of England is, that they stand con- 
joined ordinarily; that is, always except where the 
sacrament is received unworthily. The Tractarians — 
Tract No. 67 — thus settle the point : " One may then 



166 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

define regeneration to be, "That act whereby God 
takes us out of our relation to Adam, and makes us 
actual members of bis Son, and so his sons, as being 
members of his ever-blessed Son, and if sons, then 
heirs of God through Christ. This is our new birth, 
an actual birth of God, of water and the Spirit, as 
we are actually born of our natural parents." .... 
" The view, then, here held of baptism, following the 
ancient Church and our own, is that we are ingrafted 
into Christ, and thereby receive a principle of life, 
afterward to be developed and enlarged by the fuller 
influxes of his grace." They object to the view of 
Dr. "Waterland, and say "his statements lead to too 
outward a view, at least in the case of infants.*' Nor 
is it easy to see where the Tractarians have herein 
transcended their own professed standards. 

12. As to the moral state of infants prior to bap- 
tism, the Protestant Episcopal Church has no dogma, 
but allows a liberty of opinion. One view is thus 
represented by Dr. Some, of Cambridge University, 
1582. He says: "All that die before baptism are 
not damned, because we are Christians before tve are 
baptized. . . . The Church doth only mark those with 
this seal [of baptism] whom they either know, or at 
least do take, before the administration of baptism, to 
be God's lambs or sheep. . . . Baptism is not the 
cause, but the seal of our conjunction with Almighty 
God." 

In Henry Bullinger's Decads, which, among bishops 
and clergy, was of the highest authority in the Church 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 167 

of England in the latter part of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, the author Bays: "To be short, [we baptize in- 
fants,] bee believe that God, of I grace 
and mercy in the blood of Jesus Christ, hath cl 
and adopted them, and appoint f oe heir* qf 
eternal life. We therefore baptizing infants for these 
causes, do abundantly testify that there is not first 
given unto them in baptism, but that the/-' I and 
confirmed which they had before.'' Again he says: 
"They therefore -which before by grace invisibly are 
received of God into the society of God, those self- 
same are visibly now by baptism admitted into the self- 
same household of God by the minister of God," etc. 
"Sacraments, therefore," says he, "do visibly graft us 
into the fellowship of Christ and his saints, who were 
invisibly grafted by his grace before ice ivere made 
partakers of the sacraments.'' Pity it is that so just 
sentiments, so clearly expressed, could not have been 
preserved in their entireness, free from the mixtures 
of ambiguity and of false theories. 

The Church of England charitably assumes that 
children are included in the covenant of redemption; 
and the Calvinistic party assume that baptized chil- 
dren, dying in infancy, are of the elect, and hence 
both parties admit them to baptism, but do not affirm 
their gracious state prior to baptism. This is due 
partly to the influence of the Augustinian theory of 
original sin and the grace of particular election, and 
partly to the theory concerning the efficacy of the 
sacraments. 



168 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Really, on this subject historical theology is no 
guide. We must go direct to Revelation ; there all is 
clear; but the stream of Church history has become 
turbid with the minglings of human invention. That 
children are in a state of grace, in favor with God, 
through the atonement, is incontestably taught in 
Scripture. That the fruit of the atonement as con- 
veyed to them is not a mere negative good or legal 
justification, not a mere acquittal from liability to 
punishment, but a positive and moral good, a princi- 
ple of spiritual life, is equally clear. This is not the 
fruit of baptism, nor necessarily conjoined with bap- 
tism by any order of God, but it is of the direct grace 
of God in Christ. It is prior to baptism, and the 
moral ground of fitness on which the baptism of chil- 
dren rests. And this grace, emanating directly from 
Christ to the infant, is not conditioned upon its dying 
in infancy — this is a mere invention of theologians — 
but comes to all without distinction who are involved 
in the consequences of the sin of Adam. 

13. A fruitful source of misunderstanding on this 
point lies in the confused ideas respecting spiritual 
regeneration itself. Regeneration is life — the life of 
God in human nature. It is a quickening of our 
nature by the Holy Spirit. Without this life there 
is no favor, sympathy, and fellowship of God possible. 
A dead body could taste food and have sympathy 
with living beings as easily as a dead soul, or human 
nature without the life of God imparted to it through 
Christ, could enjoy God, or be susceptible of the 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 169 

fruits, exercises, and immunities of Divine fellowship. 
This is a settled and fundamental dogma of all ortho- 
dox Christianity in all ages of the world. On this 
point our appeal must be made to the words of the 

Holy Scripture. 

The word reuvdat — grennoo— -which is the word em- 
ployed by our Lord to Nicodemus — John iii, 3, etc. — 
to denote the new birth, is used, in its literal sense, to 
express the beginning of life, and applies indiffer- 
ently to any stage of natural life, from its first 
evolvement, the first quickening of existence, to its 
more advanced stage in actual birth. Wherever it is 
translated beget — which is about fifty times in the 
New Testament — it simply denotes rudimental, or 
embryonic life. A marked instance of its use is 
found in Matt, i, 20, where rudimental life is clearly 
denoted : " Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife ; 
for that which is conceived \jrevvrjdev\ in her is of the 
Holy Ghost." Here the common English reader is 
admonished that the word conceived is the same as 
that translated born, in John iii, 3, 5, but denotes a 
much earlier and more immature stage of the same 
life. It is the fact of the beginning of life which 
the word denotes; any given degree, or any particular 
stage of it, must be determined by other circum- 
stances. So also the corresponding Hebrew word 
'XT — yMad — is strongly marked by the same char- 
acteristic laws of usage. More than one hundred and 
twenty times it occurs in the Hiphil conjugation with 
its characteristic sense of to cause to bear; that is, to 



170 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

beget. A beautiful example of tlie use of the word is 
found in Isa. lv, 10 : ; - For as the rain conieth down, 
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, 
but watereth the earth, and causeth it to quicken into 
life [rn*7in] and to bud, or sprout," etc. Here, 
evidently, the word denotes the first quickening of 
vegetable life, as distinguished from the subsequent 
stage of " budding" or, as the word properly de- 
notes, sprouting. The seed is first quickened into life, 
after that it sends forth the sprout. This is the pre- 
cise signification of jewdoi in all those places where 
the verb takes a masculine subject, and is accordingly 
translated beget. It there denotes the beginning of 
life, quickening. Simple philology, therefore, would 
authorize us to expect, in the figurative and moral 
use of the word, as wide a latitude of application as 
in its literal. So that, in all such instances, as in 
the case of infants, where the higher manifestations 
of Divine life are precluded, from the nature of the 
case, ruchmental fife only should be understood — the 
life of grace according to the capacity of the subject. 
When our Lord says, " Except a man be born again 
he can not see the kingdom of God/*' he affirms re- 
generation to be a fundamental prerequisite, in all 
cases, to membership in his kingdom. His words are 
remarkable. The word " man " — dsdcco-o; — is not 
in the original; the idea of adult age is not involved 
in the language. "Except [r«c] any one [that is, 
every one, whosoever] be born again," etc. The word 
gives no conceivable idea of discrimination as to age, 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 171 

rank, or capacity, but denotes a simple generality, 
including all and every human being whatsoever. 
"Except [r«c] any one [of the human race] bo born 
again;" "Except [Wc] any one [of the human race] 
be born of water and of the Spirit, lie can not see 
the kingdom of God." Can any one forbear to col- 
late the words of Jesus in another place, "Suffer the 
little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me; 

FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." If none 

can see the kingdom of God except they be born 
again, or quickened into spiritual life, and if children 
belong to that kingdom, can the conclusion be avoided 
that children have themselves been made partakers 
of that spiritual life ? 

The words born, born again, begotten, regenerate — 
all from the same root-word — occur elsewhere in the 
New Testament in the same spiritual sense. " Be- 
gotten again" — dvayevvdo) — says Peter, "unto a lively 
hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
dead." 1 Pet. i, 3. In all such passages does not 
the date of the heavenly hope exactly synchronize 
with the entrance of life into the soul? And with- 
out this " be^ettin^ " where is there an assured 
or authorized hope of heaven? John declares that 
those to whom the right or power was given to be- 
come "sons of God" were those "which were born 
lyevvdai] not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God." John i, 13. 
All sonship in God's redeemed family, all heirship to 
eternal life, arise from this begetting of the soul anew 



172 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

in Christ. All spiritual salvation is of this nature. 
"Pie hath saved us," says Paul, "by the washing of 
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus 
iii, 5. Salvation takes the form of regeneration — re- 
neiving. Is there any other? It is true that regen- 
eration is generally spoken of as being accompanied 
with certain fruits, certain evidences, which would 
seem to make it appropriate, and indeed possible, 
only to adults. But is not any and every descrip- 
tion of the state of salvation spoken of in the same 
way ? Are not the fruits and evidences of justifica- 
tion as inappropriate to childhood as those of regen- 
eration? Take the words justification, sanctification, 
salvation, being " in Christ,'' disciple, child of God, 
or any other term or description whereby a truly- 
saved soul is designated, and will you find them any 
less embarrassed with these adult adaptations? any 
more exclusively fitted to denote infant salvation as 
distinct from adult salvation ? The Bible is addressed 
to adults, and the conditions of salvation are gener- 
ally such as pertain to responsible years; yet its 
logic and its doctrine in regard to children are suffi- 
ciently plain. 

It must be borne in mind that we are not contend- 
ing about words, but things. Regeneration represents 
a fact in our moral history — a state of our moral 
being. Now, it is this fact, this state, that we are 
interested to know. If any other words of Scripture 
are used to set forth this same idea, we accept as 
readily such other, words. If regeneration has come 



RELATION 01 CHILDHOOD TO GBB1 IT', 

to be ambiguous in the history of theological eontro- 

. we are Dot c intentions for the word; fcl 
having a I its unauthorized use in dogmatic 

history. Ave .-hall not disown its Scriptural use. But 
- ij it is the idea, and not the word, we contend 
for, and this idea is set forth by other terms of Holy 
Scripture which have become less involved in doc- 
trinal controversy. 

The word Ufe — 'cor — both the noun and ver . - 
with great frequency to signify that spiritual 
state of fitness for God which it was the end of 
Christ's death and mediation to produce in us. It is 
the antithe-is of that death which is declared to be 
our natural state, or oar state in Adam. It always 
conveys the same radical idea of yz*\,dco — t. 
be born — when used in the figurative sense, as in 
1 John v. 12 : "He that hath the Son hath life, and 
he that hath not the Son hath not Ufe" Chap, hi, 14: 
•• We know that we have passed from death unto Ufe.'' 
John v, 24: -, He that believeth ... is passed from 
death unto lij The instances are too numerous 

to need multiplied citations. We say. therefore, that 
this word life expresses the nature or quali* 
that work of saving grace whereby we are fitu 
heaven ; that it is the standing antithesis of the word 
death, which is used to denote our unsaved state, or 
our state of unfitness for heaven ; and that it ooi 
the specific, radical idea of rewdaa — 1<:» generate, 
■n — the w r 1 which our Lord uses, John iii. 
. we have already seen that "justification of life'' 



174 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

has come to our race through Christ unconditionally, 
anterior to responsibility. If infants are saved at all, 
they are saved by the life which the atonement im- 
parts to all who are made meet for heaven. "I am 
come that they might have life" says He who is the 
resurrection and the life. 

14. This view is further corroborated by John i, 
4, 9, where still another word — the word enlighten- 
ing — is introduced: "In him was life, and this life 
was the light of men. That was the true light which 
enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." 
Also, in chap, viii, 12, the words light and life are 
used interchangeably: "He that followeth me shall 
have [to (pax; xr^ C<^c] the light of life." In chap, 
i, 9, the participial form of the verb, kpybfitvov, prop- 
erly suggests the date of this impartation of the 
"light of life." It enlighteneth every man "com- 
ing into the world" or, more properly, "when he 
cometh into the world." The idea of time is fairly 
marked. They are the subjects of this "enlighten- 
ment" " when [as soon as] they come into the world." 
It is not a mere intellectual teaching that is meant. 
The word (pcoz'iCco — "to illuminate" — is of very 
marked significance in the New Testament. It is 
tantamount to regeneration or the new life. Mark 
the sense of the word in Heb. vi, 4: "Those who 
were once enlightened;" and in chap, x, 32: "Call 
to remembrance the former days in which, after ye 
were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflic- 
tion." So the early Christians were called "the illu- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 17, r ) 

minated." Justin Martyr, in liis Apology to the 
Emperor Antoninus, forty years after the apostle 
John, uses the word illumination — <f(ozca/wz — exactly 
as synonymous with make anew, renew — xatvoTroUcu — 
and also to beget anew, regenerate — dparevvda). The 
baptized were called the enlightened, because they 
were spiritually enlightened, and the usage is founded 
on Heb. vi, 4. Clemens Alexandrinus, A. D. 192, 
says : " lie that is once regenerated \p.vajzvvdco\ 
and enlightened [g>a)u£&] has his state immediately 
changed." Here the words are used interchange- 
ably. This is not uncommon in patristic usage. See 
also the figurative use of the noun ipco^ — light — in 
such passages as Acts xxvi, 18 — " To turn them from 
darkness to light;" Rom. ii, 19 — "A light of them 
which are in darkness;" Eph. v, 8 — "Walk as chil- 
dren of light'" 1 Thess. v, 5 — "Ye are all the chil- 
dren of light," etc. This "light of life," this "illu- 
mination," which places the soul above its natural 
state, and in contrast with simple nature, dates at the 
origin of natural life. It should be observed also 
that the words Tidvza. dvdpcorcov — every man — in John 
i, 9, are general and abstract terms, meaning every 
human being, without reference to age, sex, or con- 
dition. " That was the true light which enlightencth 
every human being as he cometh into the world." 

15. Indeed, to hold to the doctrine of infant salvation 
on any other ground than that of a moral change, 
wrought upon them by Christ, is to deny cither the 
evangelical doctrine of native depravity on the one 



176 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

hand, or the sup eraboun cling grace of Christ on the 
other. For if depravity has at all affected their spir- 
itual nature, in just so far do they stand in need of 
a renewal by the Spirit through the blood of the 
Lamb. Their fitness for heaven must either be af- 
firmed on the ground of their natural innocence, or 
of the renewing and sanctifying grace of Christ. The 
former no orthodox Christian will assert; Pelagius 
himself did not assert it. On this point Dr. Bom- 
berger, of the German Reformed Church, boldly says : 
"If we hold that man's total depravity involves a 
corruption of the inner sources of man's feelings, 
thoughts and volitions, of his inmost life, then we 
must also hold to the necessity of infant regeneration 
in order to an infant's fitness for heavenly services 
and enjoyments." And with the qualification we 
have given of the meaning of the term regenerate, 
as applied to infants, we can not see how this state- 
ment is to be refuted. 

16. And here we protest against that use of the 
word regeneration which confounds it with baptism. 
The two words are not interchangeable by Scripture 
usage, though we often find them so in the writings 
of the Christian fathers. The conventional and ritual 
order of the Church, as Christ established it, must be 
kept distinct from its spiritual and essential character. 
Man may administer the outward ordinances, but the 
Holy Spirit alone forms the heart anew. Nor has 
this spiritual work ever been placed in dependence 
on, or in necessary connection with, baptism as to 



RELATION <»F CHILDHOOD TO CIIK' 177 

time. Regeneration and baptism are connected as 
the type and prototype, the symbol and the sub- 
stance, the sign and the thing signified : but the 
Holy Spirit's operations are never made dependent 
upon the accidents of external ordinances either as 
to time or administration. What idea can be formed 
ot % a regeneration which is external and ecclesiastical, 
as Bishop Hopkins, before quoted, calls it ? Or what 
can that regeneration be which is begun at baptism 
and finished at some later period of life, as Dr. Water- 
land, one of the most chscriminating writers of the 
English Church, describes it? We do not say that 
regeneration may not take place at baptism; but we 
say the two are not dependent upon each other as 
to time: they are not thus conjoined by any Divine 
order and appointment. We do not deny that the 
sacraments are means of grace ; but we do deny that 
they are, by the order and purpose of God, the 
authorized channels of regenerating grace, or that 
they do, by any virtue in them, or by any opus 
operation, or by any Divine ordination, mark the 
origin and initiate the work of saving grace in the 
heart. With our sixteenth Article of Religion we 
say: "Sacraments ordained of Christ are not only- 
badges or tokens of Christian men's profession, but 
rather they are certain signs of grace, and God's 
good-will toward us, by the which he doth work in- 
visibly in ns. and doth not only quicken, but also 
strengthen and confirm our faith in him." And of 
baptism we say, in the language of our seventeenth 



178 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Article of Religion: " Baptism is not only a sign 
of profession and mark of difference whereby Chris- 
tians are distinguished from others that are not bap- 
tized, but it is also a sign of regeneration or the new 
birth." 

There is no word in Scripture more technically 
limited to denote a spiritual work than the word re- 
generate. It will not pass for sound exegesis to say, 
with Bishop Hopkins, that infants "are said to be 
regenerated by his Holy Spirit because they are re- 
generated by his fuhlic institution" This is not an 
adequate or an allowable sense of the awful words 
of Christ, "Except a man be born of water and [is 
TTve'j/iazoz] of [or by] the Spirit." Mr. Wall says : 
"Whatever epithets may be common to baptized and 
unbaptized persons, the term regenerate is not." But 
this is more than any man is competent to affirm. 
The word regenerate applies to those who bear the 
fruits of the new and holy life, and their baptism can 
be only a matter of inference or presumption. If 
you would know who are they that are born of God, 
or what is the usage of the word regenerate in respect 
to baptism, turn to the apostle John. 

It is worthy of note that the word in question is 
not used by any of the Evangelists in its spiritual 
sense, except John, and seldom by the other New 
Testament writers. It occurs more in John's writings 
than in all the others. We find it first in John i, 13, 
where the Evangelist promptly gives it its spiritual 
designation — we may almost say its technical sense — 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 179 

by the clearest and boldest outlines, "Which 
bom< not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 

of the will of man, but of God." Here the work of 
regeneration stands out in its prominence as the work 
of God, apart from all human connections. The word 
next occurs in our Lord's discourse to Nicodemus, 
and only here, and perhaps in Titus iii, 5, is it re- 
ferred to in any relation to baptism. But that this 
relation is necessary, or any thing more than that of 
the type to the prototype, the symbol to the sub- 
stance, is disproved by the analogy of Scripture doc- 
trine, and by the tenor of our Lord's discourse. On 
the other hand, the passages in 1 Peter i, 3, 23, 
"Begotten ... by the resurrection of Jesus Christ;" 
"Born again ... by the word of God," might be 
urged with equal propriety as proving another rela- 
tion of instrumentality than that of water. If Titus 
iii, 5, allude at all to water baptism, it may be under- 
stood, according to the laws of figurative language, 
and the known use of the genitive, " The washing 
which denotes regeneration." 

How earnestly does John in his epistles lay down 
the traits of the new birth ! But of all the predicates 
of that state, he never mentions baptism. Mark such 
passages as these: "He that doeth righteousness is 
lorn of God;" "Whosoever is born of God doth not 
commit sin ;" " Every one that loveth is born of 
God;" "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the 
world," etc. See 1 John ii, 29 ; and iii, 9 ; and iv, 
7 ; and v, 1, 4, 18. None of these marks necessarily 



180 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

include water baptism, much less affirm it. We, in- 
deed, suppose such to be baptized because we suppose 
regenerate persons, being well instructed, submit to the 
ordinances; but to affirm that baptism is necessarily 
implied, according to the institution of God, or as the 
means are implied in the end, is simply begging the 
question. We protest, therefore, against this con- 
founding this most characteristic work of the Holy 
Spirit with baptism, or so connecting the two as to 
make them, by any Divine order or appointment, 
coetaneous, the parts of one whole, the fractions of 
the same unit. We have already admitted that re- 
generation, in the writings of the Christian fathers, im- 
plies or often denotes baptism, but we deny that the 
Scripture use of regenerate implies baptism, more than 
as a probable fact, never as an essential condition. 

17. The doctrine of baptismal regeneration has laid 
the ground for a false distinction between regeneration 
and conversion. As, according to this theory, regen- 
eration can take place only at baptism, ordinarily, or 
according to the ordinary appointment of God; and 
as baptism can be administered but once, so it is 
concluded that regeneration takes place but once. 
The question arises, What, then, is the hope for him 
who sins after baptism? As he can not be regener- 
ated again, how, then, can he be saved ? The answer 
is, by repentance or conversion. And this conversion 
can not be tantamount to regeneration, because the 
latter is appropriated to the one act and time of bap- 
tism. This theory is derived from early usage and 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L81 

teaching, and grows out of an extreme and literal 
construction of John iii, 5. Thus Gregory Nazian- 

zen, A. D. l!G0, in his exhortation to dissuade bap- 
tized persons from falling back into sinful courses, 
Bays: "There is not another regeneration afterward 
to be had, though it be sought with never so much 
crying and tears." Augustine, A. D. 300, says: 
"An infant does never lose the grace which he has 
once received, but by his own sinful deeds, if when 
he grows up he proves so wicked; for then he will 
begin to have sins of his own, which are not to be 
done away by regeneration, but by some other way 
of cure." St. Ambrose says : " There is no regen- 
eration without water." Yet all admitted that re- 
pentance and conversion might restore the lapsed 
soul. This distinction has come down to different 
Protestant Churches. There would be no practical 
importance in noticing it here but for the obscurity 
it casts upon the proper meaning of the word regen- 
erate, and the seeming aid it lends to the doctrine of 
baptismal regeneration. It is proper, therefore, to 
say that the difference between regenerate and convert 
is circumstantial only, not essential. The word con- 
vert, in its evangelical use, always implies the Divine 
act of renewing or regenerating. The words arc both 
metaphorical as used theologically. Regeneration is 
a restoring to life; it is an act of God upon our 
moral nature, wherein the soul is simply receptive, 
as truly as was the new-formed body of Adam when 
the "Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath 



182 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

of life, and he became a living soul." We are no 
more passive in our first creation than in our regen- 
eration. Of course I speak now of the simple act 
of regeneration, which is of God, not of the condi- 
tions which define the preparatory duties of the adult 
or responsible creature. 

On the other hand, conversion is taken from the 
metaphor of a person's walking or traveling in the 
wrong direction, and supposes a turning about and 
retracing his steps, and hence the fundamental idea 
of the word involves the notion of responsible ac- 
tivity. The radical idea is that of turning; the idea 
of renewal or regeneration is supplemented, though 
always necessarily implied. It is hence that con- 
version is the more common word employed, both in 
the Old and New Testaments, where the application 
is to adult or responsible persons, because this turn- 
ing of the heart to God in repentance is the grand 
prerequisite to its renewal. The noun conversion — 
incarpocprj — occurs but once in the New Testament — 
Acts xv, 3 — "Declaring the conversion of the Gen- 
tiles." But as a verb — irccoTpiipco — it is often used, 
as in the following instances: Matt, xiii, 15: "And 
should be converted, and I should heal them." Luke 
i, 16: "And many of the children of Israel shall he 
turn unto the Lord their God." Acts iii, 19: "Re- 
pent ye therefore and be converted^ Acts xi, 21 : 
"A great number believed and turned to the Lord." 
Acts xxvi ? 20: "That they should repent and turn 
to God." Acts xxvi, 18: "To turn them from dark- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHBIST. L88 

nees to light." Jas. v, lit, 20: "Brethren, if any of 
you err from the truth, and one convert him," etc, 
1 Pet. ii, 25: "For ye were as sheep going astray; 
but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop 
of your souls." 

The corresponding Hebrew word — 3)£* — has the 
same meaning, as in Deut. iv, 30 — "If thou turn to 
the Lord thy God;" 2 Chron. vi, 24— "And if thy 
people, Israel, shall return, and confess thy name, 
and pray;" Isa. xix, 22 — "And they shall return 
even to the Lord;" Jer. iii, 12 — "Return, thou back- 
sliding Israel ;" Hos. xiv, 1 — " Israel, return unto 
the Lord;" Joel ii, 13 — "Rend your hearts and not 
your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." 
These instances are sufficient to indicate the common 
usage in respect to these words when employed in a 
figurative or moral sense. "Regeneration," says Dr. 
Gill, "is the motion of God toward and upon the 
sinner; conversion is the motion of a sinner toward 
God." This is exactly the etymological difference 
in the two words; but it is obvious enough that in 
either case God and the sinner meet in reconciliation. 
In either case the same work of grace is wrought 
upon the heart. Very similar is the meaning of the 
word repent — fierauoia) — when used in its more 
generic sense, as representing the total change of the 
mind from sin to holiness, with the idea of regenera- 
tion implied, as in Luke xiii, 3, 5. 

It is obvious, therefore, that conversion and regen- 
eration denote one and the same change wrought in 



184 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the heart or moral nature, with this difference only, 
that the former primarily expresses an exercise of 
personal responsibility in turning to God, with the 
adsignification of renewing grace implied, and thus 
applies only to persons capable of responsible action; 
while the latter primarily expresses only a passive 
reception of the principle of life, and is in so far 
applicable to all human beings alike, without respect 
to age or capacity. The word reneio — dvaxatpow, 
and dvaxaivcoaez, and once dvaveco, 2 Cor. iv, 16; 
Col. iii, 10 ; Kom. xii, 2 ; Titus iii, 5 ; Eph. iv, 23— 
bears rather the sense of regeneration, though it is 
used only of adults, unless Titus iii, 5, be an ex- 
ception. But to return more directly to the thread 
of the argument. 

18. The phrase "new creature" — xriac^ — also, is 
of the same moral signification of the word regen- 
erate; and how aptly does it include children! "If 
any one [ee tiq] be in Christ he is a new creature." 
2 Cor. v, 17. Here, to be "in Christ" and to be a 
"new creature" or a "new creation" are one and 
the same thing. The two modes of description are 
perfectly synonymous. Are children "in Christ?" 
The point is settled — then are they "new creatures" 
Why dispute about words? "What is the chaff to 
the wheat?" Here is the moral character of their 
union with Christ settled, if they are in Christ at 
all. The Scriptures deal not in technicalities, but 
are plain, open, free, and comprehensive in their 
language. Our nature is morally dead, and all saving 



RELATION 01 CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 185 

grace is of the nature of life — rat 

I anew in Christ Jesus, transforming and 

bringing us back to the image ami fellowship <>f 
In infants this ch; _ - passively wrought, 

in a way we can not comprehend, indeed, but yet 
truly, according to the condition of their moral and 
intellectual powers, unconditionally, without the in- 
tervention of secondary causes. In adults it is con- 
ditioned on repentance and faith, ami is effected 
through the instrumentality of the "Word of God.'' 
k * Of his own will begat he as, with the word of 
TRUTH." James i. 1^. "BoKN AGAIN," says Peter, 
"by the word oe God." 1 Pet. i, 23. "I have 

BEGOTTEN YOU THROUGH THE GOSPEL." Says Paul. 

r. iv. 15. Here is a circumstantiality of the 
new birth which belongs to adults. "With them, 
it is preceded by "the putting off the body of the 
gins of the flesh.*' Eph. iv, 22 ; Col. ii, 11. and iii, 
9 : 1 Pet. ii, 9. So, also, the fruits of this same 
begetting or birth in Christ are, in the adult, mani- 
fested in the moral dispositions and the outward life, 
of which infants are incapable. See 1 John ii. _ ; 
iii. 9: iv. 7: v. 1. 4. 1^. But does all this prove that 
in infants there can not and does not exist a principle 
of Divine life, a seminal regeneration, graciously im- 
parted or begotten, of the same quality or nature, 
and from the same efficient source of life, as that in 
adults — differing, indeed, in extent and force, and in 
the circumstances and conditions of bestowment, but 

n:»t in essence or efficacy. 

10 



186 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

With this view accord the sentiments of the old 
Protestant divines. " Infants," says Bishop Beve- 
ridge, "have the seeds of repentance and faith in 
them, which may afterward grow up to perfection." 

Bishop Davenant, 1639, says : " The justification, 
regeneration, and adoption of little children baptized 
confers on them a state of salvation according to 
the condition oe little children." And again: 
"From these things any one may see that infants, 
by baptism, are indeed placed in a state of salvation, 
but only relatively to thai age and condition of little 
children" 

Bishop Jeremy Taylor, 1650, says: "That which 
is certain is, that the Spirit is a principle of a new 
life or a new birth; that baptism is the laver of this 
new birth; that it is the seed of God, and may lie 
long in the furroivs before it springs up; that from 
the faculty to the act the passage is not always 
sudden and quick." 

The learned "Witsius, of the German Reformed 
Church, 1680, in his "Economy of the Covenants," 
says: "After a principle of spiritual life is infused 
into the elect soul by regeneration, Divine grace does 
not always proceed therein in the same method and 
order. It is possible that for some time the spirit 
of the life of Christ may he, as it were, dormant in 
some, almost in the same manner as vegetative life 
in the seed of a plant, or sensitive life in the seed 
of an animal, or a poetical genius in one born a 
poet, so as that no vital operations can as yet pro- 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L87 

coed therefrom, though they be savingly united to 
Christ, the fountain of true life, by the Spirit. This 
is the case with respect to elect and regenerate in- 
fants, whose is the kingdom of God, and who, there- 
fore, are reckoned among believers and saints, though 
unqualified through age actually to believe and prac- 
tice godliness." 

Dean Comber, of the seventeenth century, a shrewd 
writer of the English Church, says : " Since all infants 
are alike, either all do here [in baptism] receive a 
principle of neiv life or none receive it; wherefore I 
see no reason why we may not believe as the ancients 
did; for God's grace, which is dispensed according to 
the capacity of the suscipient, is here given to infants 
to heal their nature, and that he bestowed on them 
such measures of his Spirit as they can receive" 

Mr. Wm. Goode says: "Though the early divines 
of the Protestant Churches did not generally adopt 
precisely his [Luther's] views, and express themselves 
as if they considered an infant capable of the acts of 
faith — which Luther seems to have held — they did 
speak of an infant as capable of the seed, or PRIN- 
CIPLE, or incipient stage of faith." He further 
states : " That as in the natural birth there was life 
previously, so in the spiritual new birth life — a living 
principle of faith — must have been implanted to make 
the birth by baptism effectual to the production of a 
being spiritually alive." The only error of the old 
divines on this point was in connecting this ele- 
ment of spiritual life with baptism; whereas it is the 



188 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

direct gift of Christ by his Spirit without reference 
to baptism. 

19. We are fully aware of the difficulty of reason- 
ing or of using analogies in a subject which, like this, 
loses itself in inscrutable mysteries of psychology, 
and hence we venture only to the extent of what 
we deem the beaten path of exegesis. We offer no 
dogma beyond these simple truths : 1. That children 
are in a state of salvation through the atonement; 

2. That the effect of redeeming love to them is di- 
rect, and not dependent upon any outward ordinance; 

3. That it is not merely legal and nominal, but, 
being expressed in such words as justification, justifi- 
cation of life, righteousness, illumination, membership 
in the kingdom of heaven, there must also be a moral 
effect wrought upon them. The extent, manner, and 
nature of this moral effect we are not called upon to 
assert, are not able to explain, can not explain it 
even in adults; but we hold that it has the efficacy 
to restore children to the favor and kingdom of God. 
They belong to the spiritual family of God. We see 
no absurdity in holding that the incipient stage of 
spiritual life exists in them — that they are begotten 
by the Spirit unto a life of holiness. An acorn has 
in it the life of the oak, but not in the same expan- 
sion and force; yet it is the real vegetable life, and 
it is of the species of oak-life, otherwise it could 
never become an oak. " The kingdom of heaven is 
as a grain of mustard seed, which is, indeed, the 
smallest of seeds, but when it is grown it becomes 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. IS 1 .) 

the greatest of herbs.'' The natural child has the 
natural life of a man, but that life as yet performs 
not the functions, lias not the force of adult age. 
So it has reason and conscience, but not in exercise. 
The manifestations of these belong to another period; 
their existence is the endowment of human beinjr. 
Why may not children be subjects of grace, and 
of the principle of spiritual life, while yet in an 
unconscious or non-developed age? 

Augustine saw no absurdity in the idea of God's 
dwelling in an infant child while the latter remained 
unconscious of the fact. He says: "And infants, 
sanctified by the sacrament of Christ, regenerated 
by the Holy Spirit, do belong to his temple; who, 
though they be regenerated, can not yet, by reason 
of their age, know God." Again he says : " We 
affirm, therefore, that the Holy Spirit dwells in bap- 
tized infants, though they know it not; for after the 
same manner they know him not, though he be in 
them, as they know not their own soul: the reason 
whereof, which they can not make use of, is in them 
as a spark raked up, which will kindle as they grow 
in years." So far as the point is involved of the 
simple possibility and reasonableness of the indwell- 
ing of the "spirit of life" in the heart of an un- 
conscious infant, these views can not be gainsayed. 
Simple consciousness of the fact is not always neces- 
sary to the fact. Even in the adult believer there 
are moments, as in times of natural sleep, when 
the indwelling of God in the soul is independent 



190 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

of their consciousness, or their power to know good 
or evil. 

We say with Jeremy Taylor: "If there be in chil- 
dren naturally an evil principle, a proclivity to sin, 
an ignorance and pravity of mind, a disorder of the 
affections, why can not infants also have a good 
principle in them, though it works not till its own 
season, as well as an evil principle?" Again he 
says: "If nature hath in infants an evil principle, 
which operates when the child can choose, but is all 
the while within the soul, either infants have by 
grace a [good] principle put into them, or else ' sin 
abounds where grace does not superabound' — exactly 
against the doctrine of the apostle." We see no 
fault in this reasoning. We see no greater absurdity 
in the doctrine that a principle of spiritual life may 
be implanted in the infant mind, though not operative 
till later years, than in the indwelling of a principle 
of evil which waits the development of the faculties 
for its practical manifestation. The ferocity and 
courage of the lion lie dormant in its young till age 
and growth bring them into action, but are they the 
less really existent in him? Why is there, in the 
nature of things, a greater absurdity in the supposi- 
tion that a good principle, implanted by the Holy 
Spirit, may be inactive in the infant mind till its ap- 
propriate time of manifestation? And as to whether 
this good principle amounts to regeneration, it is not 
necessary to dispute about words. It is enough to 
know that it is a principle of life — spiritual life ; that 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. l!»l 

it answers all the ends of the child's moral being: 
that it is effectual, prevenient grace, adequate ko the 
growing wants and the unfolding powers of the child 
if it lives — adequate to the final claims of its destiny 
if it dies; is the fruit of the same atonement which 
saves adult believers, and is applied by the same 
Holy Spirit which renews and sanctifies them. 

20. Again, if the grace which prepares a dying 
child for heaven amounts to regeneration, there is no 
proof that the grace which quickens the living child 
into right responsible action is less. The assumption 
that it is, is gratuitous, and against all analogy. Arch- 
bishop Usher, in 1653, says : " Thus baptism to every 
elect infant is a seal of the righteousness of Christ, 
to be extraordinarily applied by the Holy Ghost if it 
die in its infancy ; to be apprehended by faith if it live 
to years of discretion." But why " extraordinarily " 
applied in the case of the dying infant? Again he 
says: " To elect 'infants' baptized, dying in infancy, 
< the Holy Ghost doth as truly, and realty, and act- 
ually apply the merits and blood of Christ in the 
justifying and sanctifying virtue unto the soul as the 
minister doth the water unto the body.'" Yet, as to 
those who live, he says : " It is hard to affirm, as some 
do, that every elect infant doth ordinarily, before or 
in baptism, receive initial regeneration, and the seed 
of faith and grace." But why this difference? What 
evidence have we of its truth and reality? Why 
should it be supposed that it requires more grace 
to (he prepared to dwell with God, than to live and 






192 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

"glorify God with our bodies and spirits which are 
his?" Why am I required to be holier in order to 
go and dwell with God than for him to come and 
dwell in me? The grace I need to die by is pre- 
cisely the grace I need whereby to consecrate my 
living powers to God. If all our responsible being 
is his, and is thus accepted by him, then it will 
follow that, "whether we live or die, we are the 
Lord's ;" and the circumstances of natural life and 
death are alike indifferent as to then bearing upon 
the fact and verity of this acceptance. The principle 
is the same in infants and adults. The grace of en- 
tire acceptance is the grace that prepares for heaven. 
What Scripture can be adduced to support the notion 
that God has made this supposed difference, in the 
manifestations of his grace, between living and dying 
children? What reason drawn from experience, from 
the analogy of providence, or from the nature of the 
case, can be given? There is none. But as our 
Lord has declared that " except any one be born 
again he can not see the kingdom of God," it has 
been held as a dogma, from the apostles' time till 
now, that infants as well as adults must be renewed 
in their nature in order to be fit for heaven; yet, 
partly from the force of certain doctrinal systems, 
and partly from the supposed contradiction of the 
doctrine in the actual lives of most children who 
live and grow up, many have doubted that the grace 
given to the living infant amounts to the renewing 
or quickening of their nature. 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. l'J 3 

21. If it should be preferred to use tin 4 word justi- 
fication instead of life or rudimentary regeneration to 

denote the work of grace wrought upon or in behalf 

of infants, I fully accept it, with the understanding 
that the word just ijicat ion be used in its Scriptural 
sense. I fear a slight deception is unwittingly prac- 
ticed here by a misunderstanding of terms. Justifi- 
cation is the constituting and accounting a person 
just or righteous, according to the rule or require- 
ment of the law. It has been sometimes used in 
theology in the simple sense of remission of penalty. 
In this sense it is strictly a judicial act — an act done 
for us by God as the judge or lawgiver — changing 
our relation to law from a state of guilt or liability 
to penalty to a state of acquittal and protection. In 
this strictly forensic sense it has been considered as 
an act or decision passing in the mind of God for 
and in respect of us, but as being wholly extrinsic 
to us, and thus as distinguished from regeneration, 
which has been considered as an act or agency of 
God in us, operating directly upon our character, and 
changing the springs of moral action from a sinful 
to a holy state. This distinction, I say, has some- 
times been employed in the more precise language 
of systematic theology, and the ideality has a founda- 
tion in Scripture. The question arises, then, What 
is gained by adopting the term justification instead 
of regeneration as applied to infants? — always re- 
membering that regeneration as applied to infants 

is used in its rudimentary sense of being begotten, 

17 



194 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

quickened. The answer to this must be well pondered, 
and we say : 

First. It is a mistake to suppose that justification, 
in the simple and forensic sense of a remittal of 
penalty, a release from liability of punishment, is 
ever applied, in theological language, to one who is 
not also, and at the same instant, renewed or re- 
generated. There is no such state of our humanity 
recognized in theological terminology as that of a 
judicial acquittal, or I should say a gracious ac- 
quittal from penalty in conformity to law — separated 
in fact from, and independent of, the renewing act 
of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. The distinction 
is a simple convenience of language to denote the 
several parts of that one great, I might say complex, 
act of saving grace, whereby, at the same moment 
of time, the legal and moral condition of the sinful 
soul is set right before God. To maintain, there- 
fore, that justification marks a condition of the soul 
separate from and independent of regeneration, is 
in violation of theological language no less than of 
doctrine. And what is that supposed condition of 
our nature wherein, on the one hand, by the act 
of remission or pardon, it is exempt from all liability 
to punishment; while on the other, for want of re- 
newing grace, it is unfit for heaven? What is justi- 
fication without the concomitant act of regeneration? 
A state of vindication by the law or the Lawgiver, 
with a moral condition of alienation, estrangement, 
and antagonism to the Lawgiver ! Here was the 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. L95 

point where Augustine drove Pelagiua to hia greatest 

extremity. If the nature of the child is wrong, if 
by natural birth simply he would be a " child of 
wrath," then something must be wrought upon and 
■within the child in order to fit it for heaven. If no 
such work is needed, then no fault is in its nature, 
and their salvation is not of grace. But if such 
a work is wrought at all, it is essentially a work 
wrought upon the elements or springs of moral ac- 
tion, the fountains of our moral nature. The name 
we give it does not alter the thing. The Arminian 
doctrine on this point is clearly stated by Richard 
Watson in his Theological Institutes. He says : " The 
leading blessings concomitant with justification are 
regeneration and adoption ; with respect to which we 
may observe, generally, that although we must dis- 
tinguish them as beiii£ different from each other, and 
from justification, yet they are not to be separated. 
They occur at the same time, and they all enter into 
the experience of the same person; so that no man 
is justified without being regenerated and adopted, 
and no man is regenerated and made a son of God 
without being justified. Whenever they are men- 
tioned in Scripture, they, therefore, involve and im- 
ply each other." After quoting several Scripture 
passages, the same author adds: " These passages 
are a sufficient proof that justification, regeneration, 
and adoption are not distinct and different titles, but 
constitute one and the same title, through the gift of 
God in Christ, to the heavenly inheritance.*' 



196 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Secondly. The Scripture usage of the word ji 
cation, as hinted in the last paragraph, always sup- 
poses and implies the renewal of the heart. A state 
of justification is a state of personal righteousness 
before God through the merits of Christ. All the 
words of this family, whether verb, noun, adjective, 
or adverb, are strongly marked. The proof is so 
abundant, and lies so much on the surface, that we 
shall not prolong the argument. Let any reader of 
the English Bible take his Bible and observe the 
use of the words just, righteous, justification, right- 
eousness, justify, justly, righteously, as applied to men, 
and he will see that they denote a character, a moral 
state, constituted and accounted right and accept- 
able before God. They denote the character, and 
not simply the legal relations of the person. The 
Epistle to the Romans will abundantly settle the 
point. Mark such passages as Titus iii, 7 — " That 
being justified by his grace we should be heirs ac- 
cording to the hope of eternal life;" and Rom. v, 
1 — "Being justified by faith, w T e have peace with 
God," etc.; Matt, xxiii, 35— "The blood of the 
righteous Abel;" Heb. x, 38 — "Now the just shall 
live by faith;" 1 Pet. iii, 12— " The eyes of the 
Lord are over the righteous." But it is not nec- 
essary to enlarge. Evangelical justification — the 
justification of a sinner in Christ — never takes 
place without a change wrought upon the moral 
nature. We say, therefore, we accept all Scrip- 
tural terms used in a Scriptural sense, but we are 



RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO CHRIST. 197 

not at liberty to affix to any terms a technical or 
restricted signification, and then bring the free and 
comprehensive usage of Scripture language to that 
standard. 

It is hardly needful to repeat that when such 
terms as the foregoing are applied to children, they 
are not to be construed in their highest theological 
sense, as when applied to adults, but only in that 
qualified or rudimentary sense suited to the condition 
of children. It is a rule of interpretation that all 
words must be explained according to the nature of 
the subject to which they apply. As the mind of 
the child is not developed into capability of moral 
action, or responsible character, the effect of grace, 
wrought upon the susceptibilities of the moral nature, 
can not be compared to adult experience, but must 
be measured only by the inverse rule of the evil 
condition and liability of its nature by the sin of 
Adam. Paul distinctly declares that by the sin of 
" one man " (Adam) the race (infancy) was made 
subject to "death" to "condemnation" and "sin." 
Here lies the ground-work of the necessity for a 
change, and that change, by whatever name we call 
it, must be the opposite of the evil which it coun- 
teracts and remedies. This is all we affirm, using 
Scripture terms according to the usus loquendi of 
Scripture. 



198 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER V. 

RELATION OF CHILDHOOD TO THE FAMILY AND THE 
CHURCH. 

SECTION I. 

NATURE AND FORCE OF THE CHURCH RELATION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Church relation defined — Object of Church instrumentality — Who 
are legitimate members — Eph. i, 9, 10 — Faith not essential per ae — 
1 Cor. 7, 14 — Apostolic Church practice — Post-apostolic Church prac- 
tice — Nature and force of infant Church membership — Denominal 
Church membership — Incapacity to fulfill all the duties of Church re- 
lation no bar to Church membership. 

1. In the preceding chapters we spoke of the moral 
condition of infants; in the present we propose to 
speak of their Church relation. The object of the 
preceding chapters was to show what is the state of 
our common humanity, in view of its relation both to 
Adam and to Christ, prior to any responsible act of 
the creature ; the object of the present chapter is to 
show what is the condition in which, pursuant to the 
plans of redemption, our infant humanity should be 
placed, in order that the grace of childhood may be 
efficacious in guiding the unfolding powers according 
to the will of God, and that early childhood may 
come to the personal knowledge of salvation. What 
we are prior to responsible action, by the uncondi- 



CHURCII RELATION OF INFANTS. 199 

tional benefits of the atonement, lias been considered; 
but what are the possibilities of our nature by the 
efficacy of that same grace, under appointed instru- 
mentalities, through all the developed grades of moral 
action, is quite a distinct question. 

2. The position here taken is, that the Church re- 
lation in its true force and comprehensiveness defines 
the external condition in which the child is to be 
placed, and through the instrumentality of which it 
is to realize the full benefits of the redemptive grace 
and econonw. The Church of Christ is a Divine 
provision and appointment for the preservation, en- 
couragement, and extension of piety in the earth. It 
is morally and organically distinguished from all other 
communities of -men; as none but those who are in a 
state of actual salvation, or personal acceptance with 
God, are its lawful members, so all without distinc- 
tion, who are in possession of this state of grace, are 
intended for its pale. The offices and instrumentality 
of the Church are various, but all are appointed for 
the " edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come, 
in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ." Wherever there is 
saving grace to be preserved, souls in a state of grace 
to be watched over, taught, and edified, there the 
Church has a duty and an office to perform, and to 
that limit the lines of the Church relation should 
extend. The idea of Church is very comprehensive. 
The religious wants of humanity in the broadest sense, 



200 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

in order to the preservation, extension, culture, and 
maturity of the spiritual life, must be considered, and 
whatever is required within the sphere of secondary 
causes in order to meet the same, is provided for in 
the constitution of the Church. The Church is sim- 
ply the visible, or militant form of the true family 
of God. It is the organic relation of all those who 
are now saved by grace. It gives to the spiritual 
household of God a visible, and recognizable character, 
and adapts it to subserve the uses and ends of Gos- 
pel grace in the world. As the apostle called the 
Jewish tabernacle a " worldly sanctuary," because it 
was adapted to the forms and ends of Divine worship 
by men living in the world, that is, in the mortal 
body, so the Church is that visible and organic unity 
of God's redeemed people, which adapts them to sub- 
serve the high moral ends of the Gospel in this pres- 
ent world. In this sense it is the worldly form of 
the "general assembly and Church of the first-born, 
whose names are written in heaven." It takes into 
membership our humanity in the irresponsible period 
of its existence, but only as preparatory to the ul- 
terior ends of efficient, responsible action. With the 
Church corporately, therefore, we repeat, is vested 
those Divinely-instituted means by which the life of 
God is nourished and promoted in the soul, and his 
kingdom extended in the earth. The life and growth 
are directly the gift of God, but the instrumental or 
secondary causes rest with the Church. Here is her 
responsibility, corporately and severally; like the liv- 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 201 

lag organs of the body, her members are to supply 
those offices upon which nourishment, growth, and 
extension secondarily depend. 

The design of God in the constitution of the 
Church, therefore, proves children to be lawful mem- 
bers, unless it can be proved that they stand in no 
saving relation to Christ. The argument stands thus : 
If they stand in a saving relation to Christ, who is 
the head of the Church, they are entitled to member- 
ship in the Church, which is only the mystical body 
of Christ. The right to the visible recognition of 
membership grows out of the preexistent spiritual 
relation, and is guaranteed by the original charter 
and constitution. 

3. The argument is thus stated by Paul in Eph. 
i, 9, 10: "According to his good pleasure which he 
hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation 
of the fullness of times he might gather together in 
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven 
and which are on earth; even in him." This im- 
portant passage affirms the purpose of God to recon- 
stitute the visible Church, or family of God, under 
the New Testament charter, so that all who stood in 
the favor of God, whether in heaven or on earth, 
whether Jews or Gentiles, should be gathered to- 
gether under one headship, Christ being that head. 
The apostle here does not intend inanimate things, 
as the neuter gender, za -u.vza, " all things" might 
seem to indicate. "The neuter is sometimes found," 
says Winer, " where persons are signified, when the 



202 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

writer would express his meaning in a general way." 
It is not of things, but of redeemed and intelligent 
beings, that Paul is speaking. If the things "which 
are in heaven" denote the angels, as the fathers in- 
terpreted the phrase, then it would be tantamount to 
that other declaration of the same apostle, in Col. i, 
20 — that all beings in heaven are brought into a 

CD O 

friendly union with all redeemed sinners in earth, 
through the one Christ. And Peter says "angels 
are subjected to him," 1 Pet. hi, 20; as Paul says 
"the Church is subject to Christ," Eph. v, 24. But 
if the " things which are in heaven," refer to the 
redeemed saints in heaven, then the apostle's state- 
ment is that all redeemed sinners, all who are "in 
Christ," whether in heaven or on earth, are consti- 
tuted one body. Either sense would be equally per- 
tinent to our argument, but the latter is the more 
probable, and best suits the connection and the anal- 
ogy of Scripture teaching, for the apostle is speaking 
specially of human beings, and that, too, of a partic- 
ular class, namely : " zd rrdura iu rw Xpcarw — the all 
[who are] in Christ." These, says he, it is the " mys- 
terious will and good pleasure of God, which he hath 
purposed in himself," " avoxeyaXaccDadadac — to bring 
together under one head" This "head" is Christ, 
and all who are "in Christ" are to be brought to- 
gether in one family, and comprehended under this 
one headship. This is the design of the Christian 
Church. All who are in Christ have a real and 
spiritual connection with his body, which is the 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 203 

Church. " Christ is head over all to the Church, 
which is his body." Eph. i, 22. "Christ is the 
head, from whom the whole body, fitly joined together, 
. . . maketh increase," etc. Eph. iv, 15, 16. " Christ 
is the head of the Church. . . . The Church is subject 
to Christ." Eph. v, 23, 24. " Christ is the head of 
the body, the Church." Col. i, 18. "Of whom 
[Christ] the whole family in heaven and earth is 
named." Eph. iii, 15. That is, saints in heaven 
and saints in earth. " Christ as a son over his own 
house [household] whose house [household] are we." 
Heb. iii, 6. " The house [household] of God, which 
is the Church of the living God." 1 Tim. iii, 15. 
This doctrine runs through all the New Testament. 
Those who are Christ's in a spiritual sense, saved by 
his merit, are of his "body," his "Church," his "fam- 
ily,"' his "household." They are comprehended un- 
der one headship. When Paul would describe the 
definite limit and number of " the general assembly 
and Church of the first-born," that is, the New Test- 
ament Church, he simply says, "whose names are 
enrolled in heavenP Heb. xii, 23. And this enroll- 
ment of names in heaven is the registration of names 
in the "book of life," the true family register, the 
final test and proof of a fitness for, and title to 
heaven. "And whosoever was not found written in 
the book of life was cast into a lake of fire." Rev. 
xx, 15. This "book of life" is "the Lamb's book 
of life," Rev. xxi, 27; "the book of life of the 
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 



204 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

xiii, 8. It is Christ's register of all who are spirit- 
ually his. 

So then, if children are " in Christ," if their names 
are in the "book of life," if they are "enrolled in 
heaven," if they belong to the "family" and "house- 
hold" of God, then have they a real, spiritual, and 
legitimate connection with the Church of which Christ 
is the head. And conversely, if they have no legiti- 
mate connection with that Church of which Christ is 
the head, and which is his mystical body, it is be- 
cause they are not "in Christ," not of his "family" 
or " household," not registered in the " book of life," 
not in a state of grace, but just where Augustine and 
Calvin supposed them to be, under "the dominion of 
death;" so that, unless predestinated and elected to 
eternal life as only a limited number are, "the de- 
served punishment will drive all headlong into a sec- 
ond death likewise, of which there is no end." Nor 
is faith necessary to Church membership in their case. 
The idea that the Church is made up only of believ- 
ers, is as rational and Scriptural as that a family, or 
commonwealth, is made up only of adults. It is not 
the personal act of faith apart and by itself that is to 
be considered, but the spiritual relation to Christ. If 
an infant without faith can belong to Christ, who is 
the head, an infant without faith can belong to the 
Church, which is the body, or community compre- 
hended and brought together under that head. 

4. Again, when the apostle says to the believing 
husband, or wife, that the two are sanctified to each 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 205 

other, so that, although one of them does not believe, 
yet they are to live together and not separate as the 
Mosaic law would oblige them if one were a hea- 
then, he offers the following fact, publicly known and 
admitted in the Church as proof of the point that the 
Christian law sanctions the continuance of the union, 
namely: "Else were your children unclean, but now 
they are holy." 1 Cor. vii, 14. Here holiness is af- 
firmed of the children, but it is affirmed on the ground 
of the faith of one of the parents, and therefore is not 
a moral holiness, but simply an ecclesiastical, or cere- 
monial one. As if the apostle had said : " Else were 
your children [reckoned] as \a.xodapra\ heathen, but 
now are they [counted] as \_o\yca\ saints, or members 
of the Christian community." The children, says Ter- 
tullian, were designated for holiness — sanctitati desig- 
nate — by baptism. "Every soul," he adds, "is reck- 
oned in Adam, till it be anew enrolled in Christ, and 
so long unclean till it be enrolled." " Their children," 
says Bishop Burnet, " were not unclean; that is, not 
shut old from being dedicated to God" This bap- 
tismal holiness, this external admission to membership 
in the Christian family, is only a conventional recog- 
nition of a spiritual and preexistent relation to Christ, 
a relation directly created by Christ. This use of the 
words unclean and holy, as denoting those in covenant 
with God — Church members — and those who are not, 
largely appears in the Old Testament, and often re- 
appears in the New. (See this point fully discussed 
in my work on Infant Baptism.) 



206 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

5. The principle here asserted is, that the Church 
relation is based upon a preexistent spiritual union 
with Christ; and conversely, this preexistent spiritual 
union with Christ gives the right and eligibility to the 
outward form of Church relation. The same princi- 
ple is brought out in the address of Peter — Acts x, 
47 — " Can any man forbid water that these should not 
be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as 
well as we?" Here the fitness for baptism, of those 
Gentile converts, is predicated directly of their hav- 
ing "received the Holy Ghost." Why should the 
outward Church relation be withheld from such? 
Why should the visible sign of discipleship be denied 
those who have received the inward and spiritual 
grace? To the inspired apostle it seemed an absurd- 
ity so glaring that even his Jewish prejudices could 
not withstand it, and on the force of this simple rea- 
soning he ventured to do what never before had been 
done, to set a precedent for all time to come, to inau- 
gurate a new policy, though he foresaw it would prove 
a shock to the Church at Jerusalem, and inevitably 
call him in question before them — to baptize those 
who had been held and treated hitherto as ineligible 
to Church relations. The prohibition of baptism is 
henceforth to all such taken off: " Can any man for- 
bid water that such should not be baptized?" They 
have the moral fitness; the water can not be denied. 

6. The Christian Church at Jerusalem certainly 
held to infant Church membership, for they practiced 
circumcision till at least A. D. 70. Eight years after 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 207 

Christ's ascension we find Peter and the whole col- 
lege of apostles still ignorant of God's plan of Church, 
which was to embrace Gentiles as well as Jews, as 
appears in the history of Cornelius. Acts x. Nine- 
teen years after Christ's death, we find the first gen- 
eral council — as it is called — at Jerusalem, still ad- 
herent to circumcision, and only making this excep- 
tion in favor of the Gentile converts at Antioch, that 
they would not require it, neither the ceremonial law r , 
of them. Acts xv. Twenty-seven years after Christ, 
we find tens of thousands — rroaac juupiadsz, literally 
"hoiv many tens of thousands" — of Christians in the 
Jerusalem Church, " and all were zealous of the law" 
of Moses. Acts xxi, 20. The apostles all remained 
in Jerusalem and Judea till after the general council, 
mentioned in Acts xv, nineteen years after the ascen- 
sion, and the Jerusalem Church, as to doctrine and 
discipline and Christian faithfulness, was referred to 
as a model Church — 1 Thess. ii, 14 — and continued 
to hold this rank till the destruction of the city, 
A. D. 70. The same also was largely practiced in 
other Churches, as appears from the Pauline Epistles. 
Now, that such could be the practice of the Church 
while a doubt rested on the covenant, or Church rela- 
tion of children, is simply impossible. The Jewish 
converts were never called to exclude their children 
from the covenant when they entered the pale of 
the Christian Church; the ancient order in this re- 
gard was not innovated; and hence no controversy 
appears in the first century as to the eligibility of 



208 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

children to this relation, as would have been the case 
had a shock been given to the ancient faith. And 
when the first intimations of controversy on this sub- 
ject did appear, at the close of the second century, 
it is remarkable that Tertullian, who first opposed 
the practice, never once objected to it as unscrip- 
tural, or wanting apostolic authority, but urged the 
delay of baptism till riper years simply as a pru- 
dential measure, on the ground that the child was in 
danger of sinning afterward, and so losing the grace 
of baptism; and both children and youth, he argued, 
should defer till they become established in character 
and fortified against temptation. The whole oppo- 
sition of Tertullian grew out of the belief, which even 
at that early day began to obtain, that baptism 
washed away sin, and hence it was desirable to re- 
ceive it late in life, when the temptations of the 
world had mostly lost their power. But whoever 
will consider the foregoing facts in regard to the 
Jerusalem Church, and that all the leading Churches 
during nearly forty years looked up to that Church 
as a model, and also that the Jewish element largely 
prevailed in all the foreign Churches, and will take 
in connection with these facts, also, that no sect or 
controversy appeared in the Christian Church for 
many hundred years — till the twelfth century — deny- 
ing the Scriptural and apostolic authority of infant 
baptism; whoever will consider these things will be 
prepared to concede force to the testimony of Origen, 
who was born about eighty-five years after the death 



CHIROU RELATION OF INFANTS. 200 

of the apostle John, who directly states that " the 
Church received from the apostles a tradition [or 
order] even to give baptism to infants." But it is 
not my intention to go into this argument further 
than to bring out the point under this section, that 
infants are eligible to the Church relation. Having 
stated the fact and ground of such eligibility, we must 
assume the point as admitted.* 

7. A perpetual cause of stumbling to the faith 
of the Church is, that the nature and force of the 
Church relation of infants are not clearly compre- 
hended. The doctrine is often admitted, and then 
insensibly swept away by some undercurrent of 
doubt, or practically annulled by some timid and 
overcautious qualifications. Children are related to 
the Church spiritually, really, vitally. It is no figure 
of speech, but a first truth in the Divine economy. 
When our Lord said that " of such is the kingdom 
of heaven," he affirmed a spiritual relation. He did 
not predicate their membership in his kingdom of the 
simple fact of then- baptism or their circumcision, 
but of their being redeemed children. Their relation 
to the "kingdom" arose from their relation to the 
King, and it applied to all children as such. If 
children have a spiritual relation to Christ, their re- 
lation to his Church is that of spiritual members. 
Baptism is only the sign and seal of membership ; 

-The subject is fully discussed in my treatise on Baptism, and 
the statement only, not the full argument, is called for in this con- 
nection. 

18 



210 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the spiritual relation, which is the real one, precedes 
the emblematic and the conventional, and is the moral 
ground of the latter. 

So, also, when our Lord says, " Whoso receiveth 
one such little child in my name receiveth me" — 
Matt, xviii, 5 — he completely identifies little children 
with himself and his spiritual family, the true Church. 
In Mark ix, 41, the phrase "in my name" is ex- 
plained to mean ''because ye belong to me" This is 
decisive of the sense. On no other ground could 
they be "received in Christ's name." And this he 
affirms of little children, such as one could hold in 
his arms, as Christ then held that little one. Com- 
pare Matt, xviii, 2, etc., with Mark ix, 36. Now, 
this "receiving" one in Christ's name is an act of 
Church fellowship, a recognition of true discipleship, 
and draws after it an acknowledgment of all the 
duties arising out of that admitted relation. Here 
is no hyperbole, no exaggeration, no strong language 
that needs to be pared down and qualified till it suits 
the sentiments of a remiss or a worldly Church; but 
a literal and glorious declaration of the Head of the 
Church — a command to now recognize them as legit- 
imate members of the spiritual commonwealth. It is 
an instruction officially delivered to the apostles, to 
be transmitted to the Church through all ages; and 
for the fulfillment of the same both Church members 
and officers will render an account to the Master. 
Of the same import is the official instruction and 
command : " Suffer little children, and forbid them 



CHURCH RELATION" OF INTAXTS. 211 

not. to come unto me." The quibbling of Tertullian, 
that they must wait till they are grown up in order 
r/h\" is unworthy a Christian minister. These 
children were of an age too tender to come to Christ 
from personal conviction. They were " brought" to 
him : and the command to the apostles and to the 
Church, to " suffer them to come." is a command to 
"bring" them. It is a duty now as then, and will 
remain a duty while there are children and a Church 
of Christ upon the earth. And this duty of "bring- 
ing" them to Christ, and of "receiving" them "in 
his name." is a duty to do for them all that their 
age and wants demand in order to their earliest 
knowledge of Christ, and their continued enjoyment 
of the spiritual blessings of the Church. 

8. But an impression often obtains that the Church 
membership of an infant differs somehow essentially 
from the Church membership of an adult believer; 
that, after reaching responsible years, the believing 
disciple who was baptized in infancy still requires 
another process for admission into the Church proper; 
that baptism, indeed, unites to the covenant, but some 
other condition is required for uniting with the Church. 
The difficulty seems to be in determining what relation 
a baptized child holds to denominational communion. 
baptism confer the full immunities of denomina- 
tional Church life? In answering this question we 
must state that all creeds, symbols of faith, forms of 
Church government, or special covenant obligations, 
such as denominational branches of the catholic 



212 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Church may adopt, are only their views of Scrip- 
ture doctrine and duty, and are applied only as 
prudential tests of fitness for adult membership. 
They are only so many methods of arriving at the 
knowledge of that essential fitness for membership 
which is required of responsible beings as such, and 
which children enjoy by the unconditional benefits 
of the atonement, and on the authority of the decla- 
ration of Christ. These denominational tests do not 
have the effect to admit the person to a new Church 
different from that to which the baptized child be- 
longs, but only to supply an adequate test of adult 
membership in the old Church, the catholic, New- 
Testament, Abrahamic Church. Such test becomes 
requisite only upon a new condition of the candi- 
date; namely, a condition of personal responsibility. 
It is a provisional guard upon the purity of the 
Church in relation to all who are of mature age. 
The fitness and Church rights of the child, during 
childhood, are determined on other grounds. But in 
either case the Church is the same. If denomina- 
tional ecclesiasticism assumes a higher ground than 
this, it does so by usurpation against the spirit and 
intent of the Church charter. 

We say, therefore, that the child, though admitted 
to the same Church of the adult believer, and en- 
titled to all the rights and privileges which its age 
and capacity require, yet, upon reaching responsible 
years, should answer for itself, pro forma, and before 
the Church, touching all fundamental points of doc- 



CIU-RCII RELATION OF INFANTS. 213 

trine, and the obligations of its baptism and Church 
covenant. The Church relation, during its irrespons- 
ible life, simply involved the duty of the Church 
toward it ; but now that same relation involves a 
reciprocal duty of the child toward the Church. In 
the former stage it was a simple recipient; in the 
latter, an active co-laborer and responsible promoter 
of the common weal. In the former, the Church 
Assumed an obligation in behalf of the child; in the 
latter, the child assumes an obligation in behalf of 
the Church. In the one case the child had a right 
of membership vesting in him through the uncondi- 
tional grace of the atonement ; in the other, the same 
right is perpetuated on condition of obedience, faith, 
and confession. The only distinction, therefore, arises 
from the differing circumstances of infant and adult 
life — not from any difference in the nature or validity 
of the Church relation. 

9. Nor is there any absurdity m this doctrine. 
The incapacity of the child for all the privileges and 
duties of Church membership is no bar to real mem- 
bership. The child is a legitimate member of the 
family long before it assumes any share in the duties 
and responsibilities of the family; so, also, it is a 
citizen, and has the rights of a citizen to the protec- 
tion of law, as to person, and property, and natural 
eligibility to franchise and office, long before it is 
capacitated to act in its own name, or assume the 
responsibilities of citizenship. The real character of 
its citizenship does not imply the full and complete 



214 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

exercise of all the rights of citizenship, but only in 
such measure as the wants of the child and the na- 
ture of the case demand. The analogy to Church 
relations is complete, so far as the purpose of the 
argument is concerned; and we say that children are 
eligible by the grace of atonement to real Church 
membership, and by baptism are formally declared 
and initiated members of the visible Church of Christ. 
Upon reaching responsible years, they should assume 
the obligations of this relation in their own persons, 
as they should also be required to show evidence of 
a personal knowledge of salvation by Christ. 



SECTION II. 

FAMILY CONSTITUTION— ITS VESTED POWERS AND RELIGIOUS EXD. 

Two stages of Church, life — Family Church life of childhood — Fam- 
ily a primal Church agency — Origin of the family institution — Histor- 
ically the oldest form of Church life — Vested powers of the headship — 
Three principles in the family constitution — Analogies of nature — 
Man's higher destiny — Duty of exercising parental authority — Scrip- 
ture precept — Example of Eli — Of David — Duty to servants and 
strangers in the family. 

1. We come now to speak of the method by which 
the Church relation becomes available to the child 
for those spiritual ends for which it was ordained. 
There are two stages of Church life, according to 
the original plan and purpose of God; the first is 
realized in the family, the family as in covenant with 
God, and comprehended in the Church as an inte 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 215 

gral primal Church agency ; the second stage is that 
Church life that is assumed upon personal conviction 
and responsibility. The first is the period of minority, 
wherein the member is the recipient merely, enjoying 
the benefits of Church guardianship, instruction, and 
influences, and is simply preparatory; the second is 
the period of majority, or full age, in which not only 
the immunities of Church are enjoyed, but its respons- 
ibilities borne; wherein the member is not a recipient 
merely, but an actor. The first is the period of nurs- 
ery life, the second the period of fruit bearing, as 
well as nurture. In the natural life, and also the 
civil life of each man, the same twofold aspect ap- 
pears. It is the order of nature, of reason, and of 
grace. The child has a civil life, civil rights, and 
immunities, before he is of full age; before he comes 
to the full powers of citizenship ; before the law rec- 
ognizes the right, in his own person, of property, 
freehold, or franchise. He has a citizen's life so far 
as his age and capacity require; so far as the pur- 
poses of protection, education, and preparation for 
full citizenship demand. The period of irresponsibil- 
ity is one of immunity and protection, preparatory to 
the stage of extended and perfected citizenship, but 
while this immature period continues, the citizen's life 
of the child is held and enjoyed in the family. Sim- 
ilar is the Church relation of infants. Our position 
is that Church relation becomes available to the child 
first through the agency of the parent, the parent as in 
covenant ivith God; and secondly, through the instru- 



216 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

mentality of Church offices and ordinances, but all 
during the family life of the child. 

In speaking of the family as a primal Church 
agency, as the nursery of infant piety, as the pre- 
parative stage of Church life, it will be necessary to 
go somewhat into detail, and bring out the original 
constitution and design of this first and fundamental 
form of the religious social life. It is only by care- 
ful attention to the constitution, history, and adapta- 
tions of the family that we shall be able to discover 
its appropriate place in the grand economy of reme- 
dial agencies, and its high religious destiny in the 
visible Church. A fault in our reasoning here would 
affect all our conclusions upon both the offices of the 
Church and the moral capabilities of childhood. 

2. The family is the oldest and most essential form 
of social life, instituted with marked formality and 
solemnity by the Creator himself in the garden of 
Eden, in man's first estate of innocency. That was 
a deep truth of nature, which the Creator uttered in 
respect to Adam. After he had completed all terres- 
trial arrangements, fixed the orders and species, and 
spheres of all living creatures, and endowed the first 
man with a vicegerency over all, yet beholding for 
this noblest of his works no congenial heart, no suit* 
able companion, he said, "It is not good for man to 
be alone." " The being of the man in his loneliness 
is not good." That old Hebrew word "good" is 
very comprehensive; as if existence were a blank 
without it; as if the end of all previous creations 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 217 

and arrangements would fail of their true, their no- 
blest end without it; as if the wisdom of the six 
davs' work, the beneficence displayed in heaven and 
earth, in all living things, and in man, the lord of all, 
were yet a doubtful blessing, a doubtful beneficence, 
a failure, if the crowning act in the series were want- 
ing, the final link in the chain omitted, the most per- 
fect work of God left imperfect, and the glory of 
creation left inglorious. The constitution of man 
contemplated something beyond himself, something- 
yet to be supplied, something necessary to his hap- 
piness and wellbeing. Sadly is it said of him, after 
he had given names to all cattle, beasts, and fowl — 
sadly is it said of him, "But for Adam there was 
not found a helpmeet for him" — no companionship 
among all the creatures that had passed before him. 
The lungs were not more obviously made in anticipa- 
tion of the office of respiration, nor the eye for vision 
through the medium of light, nor the ear for hearing 
through the vibratory motions of the air, than man's 
social organization and aptitudes for the conjugal and 
family relations. . 

And now mark how this deficiency is supplied. 
God says, " I will make a helpmeet for him." Adam 
had fully comprehended the capacities of all the other 
orders of creatures, and amid the profusion of Para- 
dise he found himself alone. Provision was made for 
the rest; for him none. The family foundation was 
not yet laid, the human race not yet provided for. 

There is a formality, a delay, a particularity, in the 

19 



218 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

account of the formation of woman, which indicate 
that in this act the Creator was achieving some pur- 
pose of vast significance. It was so. God was about 
to lay the foundation of a race of beings who were to 
represent him, bear his image, reflect his glory, and 
vie with angels in the dignity of their origin and ca- 
pabilities. He was about to fix the order of their 
social existence. He was about to throw up the 
guards around the sublimest moral scheme he had 
ever projected in the eyes of admiring angels ; he 
was about to constitute the headship, the bond, the 
just limit and sphere of the family. 

But whence should come this counterpart of man, 
who should be his companion and his suitable helper? 
Wonderful are the ways of God! The devices of his 
wisdom are simple, suggestive, significant, and harmo- 
nious. This " helpmeet" was not made of the dust 
of the earth, as was Adam — that might be too cold 
and distant as to origin — but taken "from his side!" 
What could more touchingly indicate affinity, compan- 
ionship, oneness! Not only was the new-made crea- 
ture to be a companion in closest affinity with the 
man, but the very mode of her formation, the very 
history of her creation, was to be suggestive of the 
fact. So Adam understood it. " And mark," says a 
quaint old English author, "woman was not taken 
from man's foot, to be trampled on by him ; nor from 
his head, to rule over him; but from his side, to be 
his companion, and from nearest his heart, to be 
loved and cherished by him." 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 219 

To Ada in the hour was more joyous when this fair 
image of himself was presented to him, than when he 
first looked out upon all the lower creation and beheld 
himself vested with dominion over all creatures. With 
inimitable simplicity and naturalness it is recorded, 
that as he accepted from the hand of the Creator 
this last and beautiful creation, he pronounced what 
may be understood as the marriage ceremony, "This 
is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh;" and 
fitly did the great historian and lawgiver, Moses, who 
recorded this event, immediately add, as completing 
the sense, and giving sanction and perpetuity to the 
idea and institution of marriage, " Therefore shall a 
man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave 
unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh." " They 
twain," says our Lord. Here is the corner-stone of 
the whole fabric — the oneness of two only. God had 
made gregarious animals as distinct from solitary, or 
from solitary pairs; and he had made solitary pairs, 
but had never bound them together by natural in- 
stinct, or by positive law, as he now does man and 
wife. But here the oneness of two is made sacred. 
This strict monogamy is not only a dictate of human 
instinct and affection, but is a necessary condition of 
man's civilization and happiness as a social being, and 
of his purity and perfection as a moral being. We 
shall have cause to recur to this important fact here- 
after. Thus, by the primitive order of God, reas- 
serted and confirmed by our blessed Lord and Master, 
the one man and one woman, united, constitute the 



220 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

headship of the family — the man first in authority ? 
the woman a coordinate power as " helper/' in coun- 
sel, in government, and in responsibility. The ulti- 
mate and directive power being lodged with the man 
does not exclude or prejudice the sphere of the woman, 
for they "twain are one" — one in heart, one in in- 
terest, one in purpose, one in responsibility, and 
they can not in any important matter be divided in 
judgment. The " oneness" applies to the soul as 
well as to the body; ay, to the soul primarily as the 
source of all true conjugal oneness ; and the counsels 
of these two direct and determine the affairs of the 
little family kingdom, the man being the executive 
head. Of the spheres of the two we shall have occa- 
sion hereafter to speak ; but here we say that the fact 
that they are distinct does not impair their unity of 
action, nor their effectiveness of action, but secures 
both, by making the one dependent on the other, in 
order that through the united agency of both the 
entire wants of the family may be met and the hap- 
piness of each and all served. 

3. The vested powers of this family headship come 
next to be considered. Remember, the family was 
ordained of God, and for twenty-five hundred years 
was the prevailing, if not only, Divinely appointed 
social condition of our race; that is, for that length 
of time — namely, from Adam to Moses — God never 
interposed by special providence to organize any more 
general or comprehensive community than is found 
in the family. There were national compacts formed, 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 221 

as the Babylonian, Assyrian, and Egyptian, but these, 
excepting the last, were little else than the forcible 
agglomeration of tribes by the despotic military force 
of ambitious conquerors. A tribe is only the union 
of a number of particular families, descended from a 
common ancestry, acknowledging their natural parents 
as chiefs and princes ; and the nations prior to Moses, 
and for a long time after, were only so many tribes, 
acknowledging some one conqueror as their lord or 
master, to whom they paid tribute, and who troubled 
himself no further with their affairs than to receive 
their tribute and keep them in subjection. In the 
days of Moses the first attempt was made to nation- 
alize the Hebrew families and tribes, and this process 
of centralization is full of instruction. We shall speak 
of it in its place ; but just here let it be understood 
that for twenty-five hundred years the family order 
was the only Divinely commanded social relation of 
man. 

Other relations were permitted; national life was 
authorized; not, indeed, in the way that it was gen- 
erally created; but no Divinely commanded social re- 
lation of man higher than the family is on record. 
The Church relation was, indeed, commanded, but it 
was incorporated into that of the family. Abraham's 
family was brought under Church ordinances and rule, 
but still only as a family. Abraham was the priest — 
his family was the Church. Historically, therefore, 
the first period of the visible Church was its patri- 
archal or family period. The "covenant," which is 



222 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the form and charter of the Church, was with a family 
as such, and recognized the family relations. This 
was not accidental and temporary, but fundamental 
and perpetual. "I will establish my covenant be- 
tween me and thee, and thy seed after thee, . . . 
to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee." 
Gen. xvii, 7. " The promise is unto you and to your 
children." Acts ii, 39. The covenant, as Maurice 
well says, is "with a man expressly and emphatically 
as the head of a family" Remove the relations of 
parent and child, and you render nugatory the whole 
tenor, conditions, and design of the covenant. It 
was in the faithful fulfillment of the duties of the 
family relation that the promise of the covenant fell 
due. "For I know Abraham, that he will command 
his children and his household after him, and they 
shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and 
judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abra- 
ham THAT WHICH HE HATH SPOKEN OF HIM." Gen. 

xviii, 19. When, in later days, the Church under 
Moses emerged from its patriarchal to its national 
character, the family was still recognized and brought 
out as the true normal element of Church power. 
Parents and children are addressed as such, and duties 
laid on them which, while they were of a distinctively 
Church character, could be performed only within the 
family relations. In the New Testament the national- 
idea of a Church is dropped, but its public, corporate, 
and primitive covenant character retained; yet the 
family is clearly brought out as the true germinal 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 223 

state of the Church, the primitive nursery life of its 
members. 

4. Now, from this most significant fact, as from a 
stand-point, we pause to contemplate the authority 
of the family headship. And it is easy to see at 
a stance that the natural relations of husband and 
lather must represent all supreme power now vested 
in the State or Church. He that by natural right 
and by primeval Divine appointment was placed over 
the family as its head, would naturally, and did actu- 
ally, absorb into himself the proper functions of priest 
and magistrate. This was the common rule — we are 
not now speaking of exceptions. 

But, in the days of Moses, we see the patriarchal 
structure modified by the national establishment. As 
an instance of which, for example, we see the ex- 
treme power of punishment of the child taken out 
of the hand of the parent and placed in the magis- 
trate. Take a striking instance, recorded Deut. xxi, 
18-21 : " If a man have a stubborn and rebellious 
son, which will not obey the voice of his father or 
the voice of his mother, and that, when they have 
chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then 
shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, 
and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and 
unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto 
the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and 
rebellious ; he will not obey our voice ; he is a glutton 
and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall 
stone him with stones that he die; so shall thou put 



224: THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. 

evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear 
and fear." 

In this remarkable passage, although the power of 
capital punishment is shown to have been taken out 
of the hands of the father, yet the ancient authority 
of the parent is fully recognized, and persistent, stub- 
born rebellion against it is made punishable as an act 
of high treason, or any other capital offense. The 
same enforcement of reverence for parental authority 
is given in the law: "He that smiteth his father or 
his mother shall surely be put to death;' 5 and again, 
"He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely 
be put to death." Ex. xxi, 15, 17. In all these en- 
actments of the criminal code of Moses we see the 
high degree to sanctity, and the fundamental import- 
ance to society, of the unimpaired natural authority 
of the parent. The religious use and limitation of 
this authority we shall speak of in its place. The 
point we here make is, that the unaltered family 
compact, as God constituted it at first, with its pa- 
rental supremacy, is essential to the wellbeing of 
society, and to the moral ends of all the social re- 
lations, and that, though national governments, as 
authorized by God, have absorbed some of the ex- 
treme functions of the primitive patriarch into those 
of the magistrate, yet they have thrown around the 
authority of the parent the most awful guards of 
penal sanction. 

Take another instance: In patriarchal times — that 
is, prior to Moses — the headship of the family was 



OHTJKCH RELATION OF I M ANTS. 225 

hereditary in the eldest born, who was not only pro- 
prietor and magistrate, but priest also. The priest- 
hood was a right of the first-born. When God spared 
the first-born of the Israelites in Egypt, and cut off 
the first-born of the Egyptians, he thereby claimed 
for himself all the first-born of the Hebrews by right 
of the " Passover " act. Thereafter the first-born 
were counted holy unto the Lord; he could use them 
as he pleased: they were devoted. This was a pro- 
vision for the priesthood. And this would answer so 
long as the Hebrew people retained their nomadic or 
pastoral habits; so long, that is, as they preserved 
the patriarchal form of social life. But afterward, 
when he organized them into a nation, and gave 
them a code of laws, instead of providing for the 
national priesthood in this way, God permitted the 
Israelites to redeem their first-born males by an 
offering, and in their stead he sanctified the tribe 
of Levi to the priesthood, and the house of Aaron 
to the high-priesthood. 

We make these references in order to show how 
the sacred rights of the priesthood passed from the 
head of the family to an order of men set apart for 
that purpose, from the patriarchal to the national 
Church, by a cautious policy, a gentle transition, 
which guarded the authority of the family constitu- 
tion, and looked with a jealous eye on any encroach- 
ments upon its primitive rights. Some of the re- 
ligious functions once belonging to the patriarch are 
now transferred to a class of men called of God, 



226 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

"as was Aaron," to the priesthood. But the re- 
ligious headship of the family is yet in the parent. 
To him alone is this charge committed. If some of 
the priestly functions have passed from him, yet it is 
only to provide for the wider relation of the Church; 
while his spiritual authority in the family remains 
unimpaired — yea, guarded by awful precept and 
threatening. And thus, also, while the natural power 
of the parent over the child is modified by the more 
general powers of the magistrate, with a view to the 
wider relations of citizenship, still that same natural 
authority of the parent is retained to him unimpaired 
within the sphere of the family, and for all the pur- 
poses which are legitimate to the family domain. In 
both cases the extreme functions only of the magis- 
trate and the priest are transferred from the parent 
to public officers appointed for those ends, while all 
the demands, both of government and religion, which 
the child's condition put forth, are fully provided for 
in the vested rights of the parent. Thus the foun- 
dations of social and religious life are laid in child- 
hood. All the duties of mature age are anticipated, 
the elements of character formed, and the embryo 
of the nation and of the Church mirrored forth in 
the family constitution. 

5. Thus three primary principles or laws define 
the boundary of the family constitution ; namely, 
the oneness of husband and wife, the authority of 
the parental headship, and the submission of all 
other members. Destroy either one of these, and 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 227 

the family loses at once its order, its efficiency, and 
its happiness; with these several points secured, and 
the duties implied in them faithfully performed, the 
ends of the family compact are made sure. The 
family is a kingdom in itself, with mutual relations, 
dependencies, and duties, which blend all separate 
interests into one, and make it for the highest indi- 
vidual good of each one to be faithful and devoted to 
the common weal. The sphere of its responsibility 
is measured only by the physical, intellectual, social, 
and moral wants of all its members. To promote 
all these ends is the grand object and intention of 
the compact. The perfect oneness of the twofold 
headship, in affection, interest, purpose, and destiny, 
leaves no diversity of pursuit possible. One end of 
activity becomes inevitable, and concentration of en- 
terprise is easy and natural. The authority of the 
parents extends to all those matters which involve 
the development and culture of the body and mind 
of the children, or which affects their present and 
prospective wellbeing. The submission of the chil- 
dren, on the other hand, is the exact correlation of 
this, the exact counterpart, coextensive with it, and 
coessential to the ends and purposes of the insti- 
tution. 

6. We say, then, the family constitution is a pro- 
vision of God for preparing its members, and putting 
them in condition to fulfill the end of their creation. 
This, in brief statement, is its object. This economy 
is analogous to the providential arrangements among 






228 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the lower orders of animals. The God of nature has 
endued the maternal parent among all animals with 
instinct and affection for providing food and habitation 
for its young, and rendering it such other assistance 
as is necessary to prepare it for taking care of itself. 
Whatever the sphere and habit of life may be for 
which its Creator intended it, for just that is it nur- 
tured and prepared while under the parental shelter. 
It is so with seeds. When by the heat, and moisture, 
and stimulating properties in the soil the seed ex- 
pands and bursts, it sends forth the tender plumule 
for the subsequent stalk, and the delicate radix to 
give it fixedness in, and to seek nourishment from, 
the earth. But till this twofold germination shall 
attain a little strength and enlargement, so that the 
root can subsist upon the coarser aliment of the soil, 
it is both fed and sheltered by the dissolving lobe 
and pulp of the seed. It is a delicate arrangement, 
but a most instructive one. The seed itself provides 
for the subsistence of its own evolving life, while in 
the germinal or earliest stage, till it attains more of 
a plant-like form, attaching itself to the soil, expand- 
ing beyond its parental limitations, and drawing its 
nourishment from a foreign source. 

So is it with the family. It is the provision which 
God has made for the children, for their sheltered 
growth, their training, their discipline, their instruc- 
tion; in a word, their entire furnishment for the life 
they are intended for by their Creator, till they shall 
be able to take their proper places on their own per- 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 229 

Bona] responsibility, and fulfill the purposes of God 
respecting them. 

But this beautiful arrangement in nature is still 
further suggestive: it is suggestive of the higher 
nature of man — his moral, religious, imperishable 
nature. With the mere animal the force of natural 
affection lasts only through the preparatory period, 
till physical strength and organism in the young 
shall be fully, or at least adequately, developed, to 
enable them to procure their food, and defend them- 
selves from danger. But it ceases with the neces- 
sities of physical nourishment and protection. The 
hen broods her young; "the eagle stirreth up her 
nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her 
wings, taketk them, beareth them on her wings ;" 
the mammal, with far stronger affection, nourishes 
and fondles its offspring, and mourns when bereft of 
them. But no sooner do the young of all animals 
attain their physical development than this affection 
ceases — utterly dies out. No trace of it remains; it 
has fulfilled its end and purpose. Not so with the 
human race. Here parental and filial affections never 
die. On the contrary, age, and growth, and develop- 
ment but mature, and strengthen, and root more 
deeply the affections that find their origin in nature; 
and when death at last separates and removes from 
sight the mortal and the visible, this holy affection is 
more hallowed by the hopes of immortality, or writhes 
in wounded agony, like the king of Israel, crying, 
"0, Absalom, my son, my son!'' 



230 THE EELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

7. And what does all this suggest to us but that 
a higher office is appointed to those affections than 
to serve the animal nature or the earthly interests 
of our children? A higher destiny awaits us, and 
hence a higher end is to be served by the family 
constitution. The influence of family is not limited 
to the period of minority. Long after the child has 
learned to subsist independently of the parents' toil 
and care, the love of parents, and the influence of 
paternal relation, and the memory of early counsels 
and discipline, remain like guiding stars of his des- 
tiny. A higher nature develops, which longs, and 
reaches, and aspires for God and immortality, and 
the influence of family comes in here to bless or to 
curse him, and it is in anticipation of these higher 
wants that the family is chiefly to unfold its hidden 
stores of moral power, and bless our juvenile nature. 
The physical and the earthly in man is, indeed, to 
be sheltered, nourished, and matured; but the intel- 
lectual, the moral, the social, and the religious are 
yet higher and nobler interests, standing above all 
others as tall mountain-peaks lift their heads above 
the surrounding hills, and, bounding our vision on 
the horizon, blend in solemn magnificence with the 
distant sky. It is impossible to look into the family 
constitution without perceiving this. Every thing 
points to the higher life to which we are called. All 
the adaptations and famishment of this most wonder- 
ful economy terminate here, and only here, in the 
religious and immortal nature of man. The parent 



OHCRCH RELATION 01 INFANTS. 231 

who fails to recognize this misses the grand aim of 
true parental life, and loses for his child all the 
higher blessings of that relation. Alas! in addition 
to this, what guilt must accrue, and what bitterness 
of regret must follow ! The lower tribes fulfill the 
parental office perfectly, fitting their young for their 
destined spheres and modes of life. Instinct guides 
them, and they are faithful to its promptings. But 
man — made in the image of God, ennobled by reason, 
enriched by revelation, urged by motives of eternal 
weight, and by affections as undying as the soul — 
man fails in this his first, his chief duty. The sub- 
lime adaptations and import of the family relation 
are reduced to the dead level of animal and worldly 
interests, and the wealth of an immortal soul's affec- 
tion and reason, and of a redeeming Savior's grace 
and truth, are all wasted on the perishable and in- 
stinctive nature of the child. 0, if we had an angel's 
trumpet or a seraph's pen, we would awake the slum- 
bers of those who fear God and believe in his Word, 
or who love their children with a true affection. 

8. It would seem irrelevant to dismiss this topic 
without urging one other point with more distinct- 
ness and prominence. We have taken the ground 
that the authority to govern the family is vested in 
the parent for religious ends. The point we wish 
further to urge is, that the exercise of this power 
and right to govern is not left optional with the 
parent, but is required at his hands under solemn 
sanctions of reward and penalty. The parent is 






232 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

bound, under moral obligation the most sacred, to 
exercise this power according to the original design 
for which it was delegated. The exercise of parental 
authority and government is often viewed as an op- 
tional prerogative; always lauded when judiciously 
put forth, but the want of it viewed rather as a 
weakness than a sin — rather as an excusable fault 
than a culpable offense. What we wish to urge here 
is, that parental authority, put forth with all the 
wisdom and discreetness the parent possesses, is just 
as much a religious duty, just as much a matter of 
moral obligation, as feeding, clothing, and protecting 
the child — just as much as praying, believing, and 
bearing the cross. God has not left these awful 
powers at the option of the parent to use or to 
neglect. He has interposed express precept, added 
gracious covenant promise to then faithful exercise, 
and guarded against neglect by some of the most 
awful threatenings contained in his Word. The soul 
of the child will largely be required at the hand of 
the parent, and the parent is then clear only when 
he has used faithfully for the salvation of the child 
all the means the Creator has placed in his hands for 
this end. 

We do not just now aim to speak of all the parent 
can and ought to do, but only of this one point — 
the right use of governmental authority. First of all, 
turn to the Word of God, and see the language and 
tone of Divine precept : Gen. xviii, 19 : " For I know 
Abraham, that he will command his children and 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 233 

HIS household after him, and they shall keep the 

way of the Lord." Deut. xxxii, 46 : " Set your 

hearts unto all the words -which I testify unto you 

this day, which ye shall command your children 

to observe to do, all the words of this law." Prov. 

xix, 18 : " Chasten thy son while there is hope, and 

let not thy soul spare for his crying." Prov. xxiii, 

13, 14: "Withhold not correction from the child, for 

if thou beatest him with the rod he shall not die. 

Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his 

soul from hell." Prov. xxix, 17: "Correct thy son, 

and he shall give thee rest ; yea, he shalt give delight 

unto thy soul." Prov. xxii, 6 : " Train up a child in 

the way he should go, and when he is old he will not 

depart from it." Yerse 15 : " Foolishness is bound 

up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction 

shall drive it far from him." Prov. xiii, 24: "He 

that spareth the rod hateth his son ; but he that 

loveth him chasteneth him betimes." Prov. xxix, 15 : 

" The rod and reproof give wisdom ; but a child left to 

himself bringeth his mother to shame." Isa. xxxviii, 

19 : " The father to the children shall make known 

thy truth." Eph. vi, 4: "Ye fathers, provoke not 

your children to wrath; but bring them up in the 

nurture and admonition of the Lord." Deut. vi, 6, 7 : 

" These words which I command thee this day shall 

be in thy heart; and theu shalt teach them diligently 

unto thy children." These passages, with numerous 

others touching the same point, carry upon the face 

of them a tone of authority and positive command. 

20 



234 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

The parent, acting as God's agent, under a dele- 
gated right and power from God, and for his honor 
and kingdom, is charged from the lips of the Divine 
Lord and Sovereign, just as the magistrate and priest 
are charged, to exercise these intrusted functions faith- 
fully. All delegated povrer from God — "for there is 
no power but from God" — as well as all "talents," 
gifts and offices, are given under the same charge, 
" occupy till I come." How else could these wise and 
beneficent ordainments secure the moral ends proposed? 
Accountability binds all men to the throne and judg- 
ment-seat of sovereignty. Relax parental authority 
and there is no security that the commanded duties 
will be fulfilled; on the contrary, there is a certainty 
they will not be performed. The child, left to him- 
self, will never perform them. The parent is not only 
to teach, as a minister is required to teach a public 
congregation, or a preceptor a pupil, but also to ex- 
ercise the authority of family headship, discreetly but 
firmly, in order to conform his house to the order and 
observance of religion. The discretion of the parent, 
not the caprice of the child, is to govern. Religion, 
indeed, is not harshly to be forced upon the mind. 
The child is to be commenced with, in earliest in- 
fancy, and directed by gentle means, according to its 
capacity and years. Authority may be used without 
severity, or harshness, or awakening fear and timid- 
ity, or producing disgust and repulsion. But with 
tenderness there must be firmness, sincerity, seri- 
ousness and perseverance. Religion is cheerful, not 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 235 

gloomy, inspiring the feelings of reverence, gratitude, 
benevolence, praise, faith, hope and love, not those of 
dread, fear, despondency, and aversion; and the wis- 
dom of the parent, no less than his piety, should 
manifest itself in the mode of applying instruction 
and discipline. The chief difficulties arise from irres- 
oluteness, impatience, and instability in the parent, 
and from commencing too late in life, when the child 
has not only fixed habits of disobedience, self-will, 
and vicious indulgence, but of irreligion also. 

9. The first duty of the child is submission, and to 
this end the first and constant aim of the parent 
should be directed. Submission is a broad word. It 
is not only the yielding a point to parental authority, 
which might be secured from fear alone, but the yield- 
ing in the spirit of reverence, inward affection, and 
confidence in the parent's goodness and recitude. It 
is not always that the child has a perception of the 
fitness of a command, or has a heart inclined to it, 
yet by proper teaching and discipline it will learn to 
submit from motives of personal confidence in the 
parent, and from a conscience on the moral duty of 
obedience. If these at any time fail, authority should 
always be interposed to enforce the rule, mildly but 
firmly. The authority of all law is represented in the 
penalty. Law, aside from the sanctions of rewards 
and punishments, is mere ethics, and promised reward 
and penalty unfulfilled soon sink the law into con- 
tempt. The power to enforce obedience upon the 
unwilling, marks the distinction between simply good 



236 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

advice and government, and it is this single circum- 
stance, namely, the application of authority to en- 
force good counsel and make it effectual, wherein all 
the art and wisdom and the nature itself of govern- 
ment consist. It is just here where God holds the 
parent responsible — first for the diligent instruction 
of the child, secondly, for the enforcement of con- 
formity to such religious duty and habit as belong to 
the order of a religious household, and the Christian 
training of the child. The child should be taught 
religious truth, to pray, to attend upon religious wor- 
ship, to cultivate habits of piety, to form moral dis- 
tinctions, to detect and resist temptation, to avoid evil 
associations, to govern its will, to practice self-denial, 
to conform to the religious order of the household, to 
fulfill its duty to superiors, to the family, and to 
strangers, and to do all under the sanction of religious 
obligation. In every thing else the parent is bound 
by the laws of nature and of society to act for the 
child. Does not the law of God bind him here also? 
10. AYe often get a glimpse of the sacredness of 
duty and the importance of obedience by reverting 
to the consequences of neglect. The estimates which 
God places upon obedience, are thrown out in start- 
ling intimations in the judgments he dispenses upon 
disobedience. Penalty is always the opposite to the 
due rewards of righteousness. The excellence and 
obligation of the precept are put in contrast with 
the horrors of the penalty. The example of Eli is 
full of admonition. He was at once the high-priest 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 237 

and the chief magistrate of the nation. The vileness 
of his two sons is recorded in 1 Samuel, chapter ii. 
For sins which merited death by the law of Moses, 
he gently reproved them, " and he said to them, Why 
do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings 
by all this people. Nay, my sons ; for it is no good 
report that I hear ; for ye make the Lord's people to 
transgress." The advice of Eli was good, and his 
admonition pertinent, but it was too gentle, and withal 
was not backed with authority. The awful judgments 
of God upon his house are revealed in the second, 
third, and fourth chapters. God says to Samuel, " I 
have told Eli that I will judge his house forever, for 
the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons 
made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. 
And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, 
that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged 
with sacrifice nor offering forever." 1 Sam. iii, 13, 
14. Awful words! And awful was the delinquency 
of Eli. He "knew" the iniquity of his sons, and 
he "restrained them not." Will not parents take 
warning? The same principle governs the Divine 
administration over parents now, as over Eli then. 
King David, with all his goodness, lacked in parental 
authority, and it brought upon him, through Absalom 
and Amnon and Adonijah, a train of disaster and 
disgrace. Of Adonijah, who usurped the throne after 
Absalom, it is said, " His father had not displeased 
him at any time by saying, Why hast thou done so ?" 
These neglects were always visited with characteristic 



238 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

judgments, and became the occasions of deep peni- 
tential sorrow. Absalom and Adonijah, two pet chil- 
dren, caused his house and kingdom more trouble, 
tears and blood, than all the other members of his 
family. They had not learned submission to parental 
authority in youth, and they dared usurp the kingdom 
and throne of their father. 

11. This authority of the head of the family ex- 
tends to all members of the household. The religious 
duty enjoined upon Abraham and his children, was 
equally required of all the servants and strangers of 
his household. Gen. xvii, 2, 13. The commandments 
binding upon "the son and the daughter," were to 
be equally enforced upon "the man-servant, and the 
maid-servant, and upon the stranger" residing among 
them. Ex. xx, 10. The example of David in fash- 
ioning his household and court, faulty as he was, in 
some of his own children, is worthy of all imitation. 
"I will walk within my house with a perfect heart," 
says he. "He that worketh deceit shall not dwell 
within my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry 
in my sight." See the whole of Ps. ci. The fam- 
ily is an empire, a unit in its interests, and the 
authority of the parent is held responsible to God 
for its protection against corruption from the disor- 
der and irreligion of foreign elements temporarily 
brought within its precincts. In this there is noth- 
ing peculiar to the duties of a parent as a ruling 
officer; all Church and civil government rest on the 
same principle — wherever governing power is vested 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 230 

for the good of others, remissness and neglect are a 
broach of trust, positive perversions. In abdicating 
the post of government, we abandon the good which 
that government was ordained to secure; we leave 
virtue defenseless and leave the innocent subject ex- 
posed to the wiles and the malice of the enemy. 



SECTION III. 

FAMILY INSTITUTION CONTINUED— BIBLE VIEW OF ITS 
KELIGIOUS END. 

All things point to a religious end — Marriage has a religious sanc- 
tity — Our Savior's decision — Doctrines of the Christian Church — Mai. 
ii, 15 — All covenant grace primarily given to the family — Antedilu- 
vian apostasy due to family corruption — Old Testament law — Its re- 
ligious principle binding and vital now — Apostolic teaching — Religion 
first binding on the parent, and through the parent to reach the child. 

1. The word of God is sure. All human specula- 
tions are uncertain, and wanting the sanction of 
authority even in their clearest results. But when 
God speaks, the mists of doubt are dispelled, and 
argument and controversy end. The great Creator 
has spoken, and lifted the vail of ignorance and 
doubt from the mind. Man was made for God. Yea, 
"all things were made by him and for him." He 
alone is "the beginning and end, the first and the 
last, the alpha and the omega." "For thou hast 
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are 
and were created." Union with God, fellowship with 
him, participation of the moral purity and excellence 



240 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

of his nature, . this is the sum of human happiness, 
the hight of human destiny. 

To this end all acts of God relating to man have 
a direct and preordained tendency. Redemption and 
providence, as well as creation, contemplate this final 
result. Man was created in the "image of God;" an 
image, says the apostle, " which is righteousness and 
true holiness." The "exceeding great and precious 
promises," says Peter, are given to us, "that we 
might be made partakers of the Divine nature, hav- 
ing escaped the corruption of the world through 
lust." Civil government is the ordinance of God, 
"for the punishment of evil-doers, and the praise of 
them that do well." It is part of the Divine arrange- 
ment for preventing sin, and protecting and promoting 
holiness. The same is Church government. The same 
is the whole scheme of " mercy and judgment," which, 
like lights and shadows, fill up the picture of Divine 
providence over man. When he chasteneth man, he 
openeth his ear to discipline, that he may draw back 
his soul from the pit. When he feeds and comforts 
him, he would dissolve his heart in gratitude, and 
awaken the emotions of love. The universe, with its 
infinite arrangements, points to God. The universe, 
with its unnumbered millions of voices, and its voiceless 
utterances from stars and spheres, declares his praise. 

2. Now, as this is the end for which all things were 
made, all secondary and subordinate arrangements 
equally anticipate this end. If man was made for 
God, all the heaven-ordained arrangements in regard 



OHUROH RELATION OF INFANTS. 241 

to man, and for man, are for the ultimate purpose 
and end of securing for him this destiny. When 
God made man, he superadded to his existence cer- 
tain other blessings. He placed him in a garden, he 
fixed his relation to other creatures, he subjected him 
to law, he gave him a Sabbath, he appointed him to 
labor, he ordained the family relation. All these 
blessings, which were secondary to existence, were 
made subservient to the happiness and ends of exist- 
ence. They were the auxiliaries of that comprehen- 
sive scheme of beneficence which the Creator had 
projected. The family, defining the order and con- 
ditions of man's social existence, being the first and 
most awfully guarded, and divinely honored social 
institution of Heaven for his new creature, was the 
chief, as it is the most ancient, instrumentality for 
his holiness and perfection. This truth is not left to 
inference. We open the Bible, and its clear utter- 
ances every where meet our eye. 

3. Marriage is not merely a social or a civil con- 
tract, but one of religious sanctity and force. We 
may form compacts for social, political, or commercial 
ends, and dissolve them by mutual consent at will, 
but the union of husband and wife is for life, and 
can not, on the one hand, be dissolved at will; or, 
on the other, be entered upon innocently and safely 
without consideration. Polygamy, divorce, unfaith- 
fulness to the marriage contract, these are questions 
of higher moral and religious import than can attach 
to mere prudential, economic, or civil arrangements. 



242 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

But the words of Jesus Christ to the Pharisees put 
the question of the religious ends of the marriage 
relation at rest by direct authority. They came to 
him, tempting him, and asking, "Is it lawful for a 
man to put away his wife for every cause?" Now, 
our Lord's answer to this question is based upon the 
principle that marriage is not a merely civil but a 
religious contract. He says : " Have ye not read 
that he which made them at the beginning made 
them male and female; and said, For this cause shall 
a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to 
bis wife, and they twain snail be one flesh. Where- 
fore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, 

THEREFORE, GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER LET NO MAN 

put asunder." Matt, xix, 3-6. Here is a union 
established by God himself, and all interference of 
human authority to dissolve or disturb it is specially 
interdicted. Our Lord never interfered with civil 
matters as such. He repeatedly and solemnly dis- 
avowed any such office or intention. A direct an- 
swer to the question of the lawfulness of paying 
tribute to Caesar he declined, as he did also any 
interference to divide the inheritance between the 
two contending brothers. Matt, xxii, 17; Luke xii, 
13. Had marriage been merely a civil institution, 
our Lord would not have interfered in the question 
more than with the law of estates. But here is an 
institution which Divine authority has established, 
and has defined the only ground or cause of its 
dissolution wbile the parties are living, and has 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 243 

formally prohibited man, in any governmental or 
religious eapacity, from disannulling it for any other 
cause than the one specified; and the ground of all 
this special, positive, and prohibitive legislation of 
the Savior is, that " God hath joined together in 
one" the matrimonial parties. Such language does 
not apply to any merely social institution, or any 
form of civil government. The contract once made 
is thenceforth inviolable; because to, disturb it at 
will, or make it subject to the fluctuations of caprice 
or inclination, would be to subvert the foundations 
of morality, and defeat the ends of religion. 

4. It is in harmony with the spirit and meaning 
of the marriage institution as a religious contract, 
that the Christian Church from the earliest ages has 
required marriage to be performed with religious 
ceremony, and by the priest. The State law has, 
indeed, in different ages and countries, declared mar- 
riage lawful when performed by the magistrate, rec- 
ognizing it as simply a civil contract ; but the doctrine 
of the Church, though in different ages incumbered 
with much superstition and needless ceremony, has 
steadfastly preserved the idea of the character and 
intention of the primeval enactment. 

5. An institution thus embodying a religious idea 
and obligation in its enacting form must contem- 
plate a religious end. Why has God himself ordained 
and defined it, excluding man from any right of in- 
terference ? Why has he thus cautiously separated 
and distinguished it from all those institutions which 



244 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the vested powers of society may of right ordain 
and change, but that he may secure some high and 
distinctively moral and religious end? And- this 
the Bible itself further declares. In Malachi ii, 15, 
speaking of husband and wife, and of the religious 
ends of the family relation as originally constituted, 
he says: "And did not he [God] make one? Yet 
had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore 
one? That he might seek a godly seed." Bear 
in mind that the prophet is speaking of the original 
constitution of the family headship by the Creator, 
and he directly affirms that the design of God in 
this ordainment was religious, and this religious end 
was to be realized in the children of the united pair, 
"that he might seek [D'libx JTTfl a seed of God" 
God might have made myriads of human beings to 
people the earth, each a responsible agent, as he 
made the angels, the consequences of whose good or 
evil conduct, in each individual case, should terminate 
on himself; but he did not. He who "breathed" 
into Adam "the breath of life," still possessed the 
undiminished energy of the creative and life-giving 
spirit, but he did not at once people the earth with 
adult beings. This would have precluded the grand 
scheme of a race of beings whose life, and sympa- 
thies, and dependencies, and obligations should be 
blended into unity, and made the strong guards and 
guarantees of religion. It would have precluded the 
idea of family. He might have made a plurality of 
"helpmeets" or companions for the first man, but 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 245 

this would have weakened the social bond and sym- 
pathy of the family, opened the door of discord, 
shattered parental authority, and defeated the grand 
religious end. All history shows that polygamy leads 
to this result. The "residue" of the spirit was with 
him, but his prolific energy was restrained, and the 
Creator, excluding all other schemes of human society, 
shut himself up to tins one, not from a physical but 
a moral reason. He limited his creative acts to the 
production of two human beings at first, and con- 
stituted them "one" in a sense in which no other 
pairs of animals were one — in a social and religious 
sense — for the grand and sublime design of securing 
" a seed from God" that the race of man which was 
to spring from this primitive pair might be as much 
in the image of God as their first ancestors at their 
creation. And now, after the fall of the first pair, 
the family constitution is still to be the chief means 
by which the Creator, through redeeming grace be- 
stowed, shall still " seek this godly seed." How 
wonderfully does the slow production of our species, 
under the foster care of the most delicate arrange- 
ment of sympathies and affections, when sanctified 
and directed by religion, lead to this godly result! 
Religion, godliness, then, explains the end and reason 
of the Creator's plan of family. Its sympathies are 
more open to religion, and when its relations and 
affections are sanctified it is more powerfully con- 
centrative of holy influences. It is thus that the 
Creator has carefully sought out a godly seed, as 



246 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

when one seeks by feeling after the object; so the 
word t^'pDD denotes to search by feeling out. Here is 
forethought and design in the Creator; and, as the 
prophet is speaking expressly upon the subject of 
the moral reason of the family constitution, we take 
the passage as decisive of the case. 

6. How perfectly harmonious with this original 
design is the subsequent Church covenant established 
in the family of Abraham, and all other subsequent 
enactments, relating to the duties of parents and chil- 
dren, husband and wife. Starting from this funda- 
mental, moral idea of the family constitution, all that 
system of law, and promise, and covenant, and grace 
to the family, both in the Old and New Testaments, 
opens to our vision with a most beautiful and sublime 
symmetry. On this ground the conjugal relation is 
to be sought, the relative duties of husband and wife 
are enjoined, and the blessing of God upon the 
household is secured. If religion is the end of the 
family constitution, we certainly have a right to ex- 
pect that the first step in this series and delicate 
complication of relationships should be sought and 
taken on religious grounds. The first, grand apostasy 
of Adam's race sprang from the corruptions of the 
family, and this again was traceable to the irreligion 
and mere sensuality of the conjugal relation. "And 
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the 
face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 
that the sons of God saw the daughters of man that 
they were fair, and they took them wives of all which 



OHUBCH RELATION OF ESFAKTS. 247 

they chose." Genesis vi. 1. % It is thus that God 
commences to write down the causes of that degen- 
eracy, atheism, and moral corruption of society winch 
jht on the general destruction of the world by 
the Flood. "The sons of G ■>]" is a phrase which, in 
those early times, denoted the professed worshipers 
of Jehovah, mainly represented in the family of 
Seth ; while the " daughters of men" is a description 
of another branch of the race, mostly represented by 
the descendants of Cain, who cast off the fear and 
worship of God. There was an irreligion in these 
alliances. They were not sought for the glory of 
God, nor with anv view to the religious wellbeing 
of the family, but from sensuality, selfishness, caprice, 
and fancy. Here was the ground-work, the starting- 
point, of their fearful departure from God. How can 
children be brought up religiously when husband and 
wife are not joined together "in the Lord" — nay, 
when their union is chosen and continued in con- 
tempt of his claims and his counsels? God set down 
the corruptions of the earth before the Flood as due, 
primarily and chiefly, to the derangement and irre- 
ligion of the family — chiefly and firstly springing 
from godless marriages, which thrust the claims of 
religion aside, and thus at the fountain-head perverted 
the moral ends of the institution. 

7. All sacred history holds out a continuous ad- 
monition on this subject. With what care did the 
good patriarchs guard against irreligious alliances 1 
The twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis is a beautif il 



248 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

specimen of the working of that religious principle 
•which governed them in their family, and social con- 
nections. In the law of Moses the prohibition upon 
irreligious marriages of the covenant people with idol- 
aters was thrown into the foreground of legislation. 
"Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy 
daughter shalt thou not give unto his son, nor his 
daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they 
will turn away thy son from following me, that they 
may serve other gods." Deut. vii, 3; Ex. xxxiv, 16. 
It was the violation of this law which insnared Solo- 
mon, and is recorded as a leading cause of his defec- 
tion from God. " For it came to pass, when Solomon 
was old, that his wives turned away his heart after 
other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the 
Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father." 
1 Kings xi, 1-4. The marriage of the good Jehosha- 
phat's son with the idolatrous daughter of Ahab and 
Jezebel brought a train of disasters upon his reign, 
and plunged his kingdom, after his death, into idol- 
atry and bloody persecutions, and finally brought the 
dynasty of David to the brink of extermination — the 
infant Joash, the last male descendant of the royal 
house of David, being rescued from the common mas- 
sacre only by artifice. 2 Kings xi, 1-3. With what 
jealousy the rulers of the returned Jewish exiles 
watched this question after the Babylonian captivity, 
may be found in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, 
whose example as governors and teachers of the 
people in this respect is full of solemn admonition. 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 249 

Read the account in Ezra ix and x. A great moral 
principle underlies this stern Jewish law. And later, 
in Nehemiah's administration, among the solemn obli- 
gations to which the people bound themselves, "en- 
tering into an oath and a curse," after they had read 
the law seven successive days, w T as a that they would 
not give their daughters unto the people of the land, 
nor take their daughters for their sons." Neh. x, 30. 
In vain will it be urged that this was a Jewish law. 
Be it so. But a principle vital to religion in all 
ages and among all people is involved in it. It is 
as true now as then, that if the union of the family 
headship is formed on principles which indorse and 
authorize idolatry, or which exclude religion and the 
glory of God as the ruling motive, the influence of 
parental authority and example will be disastrous to 
family religion — perhaps totally destructive of it. 
How can religion appear in the children, and flourish 
in the home circle, if not planted in the affections 
which unite husband and wife? Children of irre- 
ligious parents may be converted — have often been — 
but only when they have been providentially brought 
under better influences outside of the family, and in- 
dependent of the instrumentality of father or mother. 
It is not of such instances, or of such possibilities, 
that we now speak; but of the direct influences of 
home, and of the home relations, to bring children to 
Christ. And we say, if this is ever done effectually, 
and this interest guarded securely, it will be when 
family religion springs from the united faith, and 



250 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

purpose, and zeal of both parents. God must be 
honored in their union, and then his covenant bless- 
ing will be upon the fruit of that union. 

8. So taught the holy apostles of our Lord: 
" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also 
loved the Church, and gave himself for it, . . . that 
he might present it to himself a glorious Church." 
" Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according 
to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto 
the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the 
grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered." 
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, 
as it is fit in the Lord" "Wives, submit yourselves 
unto your own husbands as unto the Lord; for the 
husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the 
head of the Church; . . . therefore as the Church is 
subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own 
husbands." "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to 
your own husbands; that if any obey not the Word, 
they also may without the Word be won by the con- 
versation of the wife." Eph. v, 22-25; 1 Peter iii, 
1,7. 

What clearer proof can be given than from these 
and multitudes of other passages, that the grand and 
primal source of family religion, the religious hope 
and dependence of the family, instrumentally, is to 
be found only in the oneness of husband and wife in 
their Christian fellowship, and their plan and order 
of family arrangements? To religion all the several 
and particular duties and relations of husband and 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 251 

wife, parent and child, point as to a common center. 
And it is only upon the faithful adherence to this 
grand idea and purpose that the household is blessed. 
It is not the measure of wealth, or of worldly honor, 
or of natural genius, or any such accidents that will 
determine the happiness of a family, but their faithful 
adherence to the religious ends contemplated in this 
relation. We do not now speak of individual happi- 
ness as such, but of family bliss and prosperity — the 
joy, and order, and prosperity of a household as such ; 
and we say it is found only in religion — it is Heaven's 
fulfilled promise to the pious headship and members 
of the house. " The voice of rejoicing and salvation 
is in the tabernacles of the righteous." " The curse 
of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he 
blesseth the habitation of the just." " The wicked 
are overthrown and are not, but the house of the 
righteous shall stand." " The just man walketh in 
his integrity; his children are blessed after him." 
"Know, therefore, that the Lord thy God, he is God, 
the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy 
with them that love him, and keep his commandments 
to a thousand generations." Ps. cxviii, 15; Prov. iii, 
33, and xii, 7, and xx, 7; Deut. vii, 9. 

9. The blessings of God upon the household are 
limited to such as keep his covenant. His covenant 
with Abraham required that patriarch to " walk before 
God and to be perfect," and that he should " command 
his children, and his household after him, to keep 
the way of the Lord;" and the promise of that cove- 



252 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

nant was, " I will be a God to thee, and to thy 
seed after thee." Gen. xvii, 1, 7, and xviii, 19. In 
both cases both the obligation and the blessing began 
with the parent, and through the parent reached the 
child. This is the ordinary method and appointment 
of God ; this is the beginning and order of religion in 
the family; and this family religion is the germ of 
Church life. 



SECTION IV. 

FIRST STAGE OF THE CHURCH LTFE OF CHILDHOOD REALIZED IN 
THE FAMILY— PARENTAL AND FILIAL DUTY. 

The family a normal Church r.pency — Proved historically — Proved 
from the tenor of religious precept to both parent and child — The 
law of the New Testament as to which parent should claim the relig- 
ious training of the child, where one is an unbeliever — The rights of 
the mother — Religious family life among the early Christians — At- 
tempts to overthrow the family institution — Heathenism — Monachism 
and celibacy of clergy — Rev. John Fletcher — Communism and social- 
ism — Rosseau — Foundling hospitals — Robert Owen — Fourier — Chris- 
tianity our only hope. 

1. The whole tenor of law bearing on the family 
relations, both in the Old and New Testaments, proves 
that the family is a distinct, normal agency of the 
Church, for the early culture and confirmation of 
piety in the child. On this principle alone can the 
whole Divine code on family religion be explained. 
Religion limits the authority of parents, and religion 
limits the filial submission of the child. "Ye fathers, 
provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 253 

UP IX Till: NURTURE AND ADMONITION OF THE LORD." 

So also of the children — "Children, obey your parents 
IN the Lord." This qualifying clause of the Divine 
statutes — "tii the Lord" — at once gives sanction and 
limitation to the law. It marks the end of the com- 
mandment. 

The point we now aim to set forth and establish is, 
that the first stage of Church life to the child is re- 
alized and provided for in the family — the family, we 
mean, as in covenant with God, and as comprehended 
in the Church. Historically the Church of God has 
two stages — the family and the conventional stage. 
The first organized Church was in a family as such. 
The covenant with Abraham recognized his paternal 
headship, contemplated a posterity of the patriarch, 
and comprehended a system of family discipline and 
instruction. This was not accidental and temporary, 
but fundamental and perpetual. Afterward the Church 
became national, under Moses, but still retaining its 
family and covenant arrangements. In the New Test- 
ament it has dropped the national idea, but retained 
its conventional form, still comprehending the primi- 
tive family order. It is still the order of God that 
the first stage of the Church life shall be developed 
and fostered in the family. The family is God's ap- 
pliance for elemental, or nursery Church life. It is 
still reiterated to the New Testament Church mem- 
bers. "The promise is unto you and to your chil- 
dren." "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's 
seed, and heirs according to the promise." Part of 



254 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

that "promise" was, "I will be a God to thee, and 
to thy seed after thee." Gen. xvii, 7. The constant 
reference, in the New Testament, to the family, or 
household, as the recipients of covenant blessings, 
points significantly to this fact. When our Lord first 
sent out the twelve apostles to go through the laud 
of Israel he specially commissioned them to bless 
households, " hinting to us that whenever it is possi- 
ble we should embrace men in their family relations, 
and make it our object to convert not only souls, but 
families to Christ; even as the apostles from the day 
of Pentecost." And when our Lord blessed Zacheus, 
it was a family blessing : " This day is salvation come 
to this house." "The reference to the house" says 
Stier, "as the foundation, as of human, so of political 
life generally, and of the Church to be raised up, 
begins thus early to occur in the Lord's discourses, 
and then runs through the entire New Testament." 

2. That the first stage of the Church life of the 
child is realized in the family, and the first benefits 
of its Church life derived through the family rela- 
tion — the family, we mean, as in covenant with 
God — is proved from the fact, that both in the Old 
and New Testaments, the first religious duties which 
are to be performed toward the child, are required 
of the parent, and, on the other hand, the first relig- 
ious duties required of the child recognize its cove- 
nant relation to God, at the same time that it recog- 
nizes its filial dependence on the parents. 

The first religious duty to be performed to the child 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 255 

is to impart instruction and discipline. This, indeed, 
comprehends the grand duty of the Church toward 
each individual of its members, whether adult or 
minor, but in the case of the adult the methods em- 
ployed are of a nature suited to mature years, such 
as the public ministry, the ordinances, and the func- 
tions of public officers, while in the case of the child 
the God of nature has marked out the instrumentali- 
ties, and the God of the Bible has commanded that 
they be through the tender offices of parental rela- 
tion. "We must here present the reader with a speci- 
men of Bible precept and provision for the first re- 
ligious wants of the child, and then show that these 
precepts, both in the nature of the duties enjoined 
and the circumstances of the case, imply the cove- 
nant or Church relation of the parties addressed. 

Psa. lxxviii, 2-8: "I will utter dark sayings of 
old, which we have known, and our fathers have told 
us. We will not hide them from their children, 
showing to the generation to come the praises of the 
Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that 
he hath done. For he established a testimony in 
Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he com- 
manded our fathers, that they should make them 
known to their children ; that the generation to come 
might know them, even the children which should be 
born ; who should arise and declare them to their 
children, that they might set their hope in God, and 
not forget the works of God, but keep his command- 
ments ; and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn 



256 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

and rebellious generation; a generation that set not 
their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast 
with God." 

These words of the Psalmist are an evangelical ex- 
position of the authority and efficacy of that law of 
Moses, which required of the parent the faithful in- 
struction of the children, as in the words following : 
Ex. x, 2 : " And that thou may est tell in the ears 
of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have 
wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done 
among them; that ye may know how that I am the 
Lord." Deut. iv, 9, 10: "Only take heed to thyself 
and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the 
things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they de- 
part from thy heart all the days of thy life ; but 
teach them thy sons, and thy son's sons : specially 
the day that thou stoodest before the Lord thy God 
in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, Gather me 
the people together, and I will make them hear my 
words, that they may learn to fear me all the days 
that they shall live upon the earth, and that they 
may teach their children." Chap, vi, 6, 7: "And 
these words which I command thee this day shall be 
in thy heart : and thou shalt teach them diligently 
unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou 
sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the 
way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest 
up." This same is also repeated in chap, xi, 19. 
Gen. xviii, 19: "For I know Abraham, that he will 
command his children and his household after him, 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 257 

and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do jus- 
tice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon 
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him." Prov. 
xxii, 6 : " Train up a child in the way he should go." 
Eph. vi, 4: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your chil- 
dren to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord." Prov. xix, 18: "Chasten 
thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul 
spare for his crying." 

From these commands upon parents let us turn to 
consider the correlative duties of children as laid 
down in the Bible. 

Lev. xix, 3 : "Ye shall fear every man his mother 
and his father, and keep my Sabbaths: I am the 
Lord your God." Deut. v, 6 : " Honor thy father 
and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath com- 
manded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and 
that it may go well with thee in the land which the 
Lord thy God giveth thee." Prov. iv, 1 : " Hear, ye 
children, the instructions of a father, and attend to 
know understanding." Chap, xxiii, 22: "Hearken 
unto thy father that begat thee, and despise not thy 
mother when she is old." Chap, xxxvi, 17 : " The 
eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey 
his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, 
and the young eagles shall eat it." Mark vii, 10: 
"For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; 
and whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the 
death." Eph. vi, 1-3 : " Children, obey your parents 

in the Lord ; for this is right. Honor thy father and 

22 



258 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

mother, (which is the first commandment with prom- 
ise,) that it may be well with thee, and that thou 
mayest live long on the earth." 

Here the covenant promise is formally annexed 
and offered, which proves incontestably that the sub- 
jects of this command and promise were in covenant 
with God. 

Col. iii, 20 : " Children, obey your parents in all 
things ; for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord." 
Prov. i, 8 : " My son, hear the instruction of thy 
father, and forsake not the law of thy mother." 
Chap, vi, 20 : " My son, keep thy father's command- 
ment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind 
them continually upon thy heart and tie them about 
thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee ; when 
thou sleep est, it shall keep thee ; and when thou 
awakest, it shall talk with thee." 

3. The foregoing Scriptures are thrown together in 
this connection as specimens of Bible teaching on 
these subjects, and that the drift and tenor of that 
teaching might be brought directly under the eye of 
the reader. It is a current maxim of Revelation, that 
" what things soever the law saith, it saith to them 
that are under the law." God speaks to his own 
people. The " lively oracles" were delivered only to 
the people in covenant with God. Rom. iii, 4, 19. 
It was an apostolic, as well as an Old-Testament rule, 
to restrict their communications to the Churches. 
They never delivered precepts, and promises, and doc- 
trinal revelations to the heathen. "For what," says 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 259 

Paul, "have I to do to judge [to govern and disci- 
pline] those who are without? [that is, without the 
Church.] Do not ye judge them that are within " [the 
Church?] 1 Cor. v, 12. "To you," says Christ, 
" it is given to understand the mystery of the king- 
dom of God, but to them that are without, all things 
are done in parables." " Walk in wisdom toward 
them that are without." "Without are dogs and 
sorcerers/'' See Mark iv, 11 ; Col. iv, 5 ; 1 Thess. 
iv, 12; 1 Tim. iii, 7; Rev. xxii, 15. It is absurd to 
suppose God would address himself, as in the fore- 
going passages, to those who openly set at naught 
his authority. " Unto the wicked lie saith, What 
hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou 
shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou 
hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thy 
back?" Ps. 1, 16, 17. We say, therefore, God's 
method of speaking to parents and children proves 
them to have been Church members. 

4. But the nature of the duties commanded, as 
well as the motives, sanctions, and encouragements 
held out, directly prove the parties to be in covenant 
with God. This point deserves a little further notice. 
" Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this is 
well-pleasing unto the Lord." Here is a motive and 
a sanction which appeals only to a pure mind, and 
one who acknowledges his obligation to "please the 
Lord," having entered the covenant. "Obey your 
parents in the Lord," says Paul; "for this is right." 
The words in the Lord are too specific to be misap- 



260 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

plied. They are the same as in Christ, and they are 
decisive of the Christian character and relation of the 
party addressed. The phrase is of constant recur- 
rence in the New Testament, and its import is gath- 
ered from suck passages as the following: "Receive 
him [Epaphroditus] in the Lord'" "Stand fast in the 
Lord'" "Be of the same mind in the Lord;" "Who 
is a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord;" 
"Your labor is not in vain in the Lord;" "Aquila 
and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord;" "A 
holy temple in the Lord;" "Now are ye light in the 
Lord;" "Be strong in the Lord" etc. 1 Cor. xv, 
58, and xvi, 19; Eph. ii, 21, and v, 8, and vi, 10; 
Phil, ii, 29, and iv, 1, 2; Col. iv, 7. The special 
Christian and Church designation of this phrase is 
unquestionable. The dative h xopho — in the Lord — 
denoting rest in a place, is expressive of the state in 
which the parties addressed were considered to be. 
Both parents and children were in the Lord; that is, 
they were so by profession, by formal covenant obli- 
gation, and were accepted and presumed to be so 
really and spiritually. The phrase also denotes the 
limit and end of filial obligation. The children were 
to obey, in all things consistent with their state and 
relation, in the Lord. 

The learned Dr. Stier advances the same view of 
the import of the phrase in the Lord as applied to 
children. He says: "Thus the grace of Him that 
calleth — that the fulfillment may not be behind the 
type, Rom. ix, 11 — the germ out of which the tree 



CIUKCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 261 

of their Christian life is developed under spiritual 
culture, is the necessary foundation of Christian 
education, of their \jzatdajcojia iv Xncazco] nurture 
in Christ, and not merely their nurture [e«c Kpearbv\ 

into Christ." The first makes their claim to Chris- 
tian nurture to grow out of their spiritual relation as 
already in Christ; the other, in order to bring them 
into Christ — a difference wide and radical, as the 
attentive reader will not fail to see. 

So, also, Prof. Schaff: "It is worthy of remark," 
he says, " that the apostle makes the children of 
believing parents an organic part of the Christian 
congregation in requiring of them obedience 'in the 
Lord; thus supplying the purest motive for obe- 
dience, and at the same time duly restricting it. 
For as parental authority is derived from Christ, 
and is to be exercised for him, it can only claim 
obedience where it answers his spirit and will. When, 
therefore, it commands what is wrong, it comes into 
manifest conflict with its author, and destroys itself. 
Then applies our Lord's language — Matt, x, 37 — - 
'He that loveth father or mother more than me is 
not worthy of me.' " 

Then, also, observe the further sanction and motive 
of filial obedience — "for this is right" The word 
dizcuoc — right — denotes what is righteous or just in 
the sight of God — right according to the Christian 
standard and code. When it applies to the quality 
of an act, it denotes what is intrinsically right ac- 
cording to the law of God; and when it applies to a 



262 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

person, it denotes a person accounted right or right- 
eous before God — one who enjoys the Divine favor, 
having received forgiveness of sin. This evangelical 
import of the term appears without an exception 
in its New-Testament use, wherein it occurs about 
eighty-one times. 

On the other hand, parental instruction is to be 
given under the same sanctions and for the same end. 
"Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord" — the instruction and discipline of the Lord, 
says Doddridge. " The genitive xu t ocoo — of the 
Lord" — says Olshausen, "is to be explained by the 
circumstance that both discipline and exhortation are 
conceived as proceeding from Christ himself." " Such 
training and correction as befit the servants of the 
Lord," say Conybeare and Howson. The tenor of 
all the foregoing citations, whether from the Old or 
New Testament, proves the same. Parents and chil- 
dren are addressed as in the same Church relation, 
susceptible of the same obligations and motives to 
duty, and in either case the final end and design of 
this family instruction and discipline is, "that they 
might set their hope in God, and not forget the 
works of God, but keep his commandments." The 
result being the perpetuity of the spiritual knowledge 
and covenant bond of God's people, the means lead- 
ing to it were such as completely fell within the 
purview of Church duty, which was the point here 
to be proved. 

One other point remains to be noticed in this con- 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 263 

nection, in order to render the argument under this 
head complete; the above precepts relating to family 
religious culture apply to an age of childhood prior 
to full personal responsibility. The duty of the child 
to submit to the parent, and the duty of the parent 
to teach and discipline the child, date at the earliest 
dawn of reason. The very terms of the command- 
ments to yield deference "in all things" to the 
parent, indicate the tenderest years of perceptive 
and dependent existence. Indeed, the duties are 
not laid down with reference to any stage of child- 
hood, but with reference to childhood as such; child- 
hood, however, as in covenant with God. The "in- 
struction and discipline of the Lord" with them are 
to commence at the earliest date of rational life, and 
proceed according to the wants and capacity of the 
child till parental responsibility shall give place to 
the mature individual responsibility of the child. 

5. The inquiry may not improperly arise here, 
What if one of the parents be an unbeliever, w T hich 
party is the child to obey? We have already ex- 
plained the restrictive clause in parental right to 
command, and filial obligation to obey; both are to 
be done "in the Lord." By the law of the New 
Testament, and the most ancient and uniform prac- 
tice of the Church, in a case like the one supposed, 
the children, as to their Church relations, have been 
reckoned to the believing party. This law is laid 
down in 1 Cor. vii, 14, and where the unbelieving 
party interposes no authoritative bar, the Church 



264 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

proceeds on this principle. But the rights of an 
unbelieving parent are not annulled by his want of 
personal faith, so long as his actual authority over the 
child is exercised within the chartered Christian limits. 
But particularly the rights of a mother, and her 
influence, ought here to be respected. Whatever the 
civil law may determine as to the power of the 
mother, or her want of power over the child, the law 
of God has laid her peculiar sphere in the nurture 
of childhood, and her prerogatives there are sacred 
and undisputable. In 1 Tim. ii, 15, the apostle lays 
down the sphere and office of woman. In verse 
12, the apostle prohibits the woman from the offices 
of public teaching and Church administrations — "I 
suffer not a woman to teach, or to usurp authority 
over the man;" and in verse 15 he defines her 
sphere, and the duties in the faithful discharge of 
which she shall be saved — "nevertheless, she shall 
be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith, 
and charity, and holiness, with sobriety." The word 
rexvoyoviaz — child-bearing — includes also the nurture 
of childhood. Robinson, in his Lexicon, gives the sense 
thus : " The bearing of children, and so by implica- 
tion including all the duties of the maternal relation; 
she shall be saved through the faithful performance 
of her duties as a mother, in bringing up her house- 
hold unto God." Bengel says: "The woman's office 
is here described, in contrast with the duty of teach- 
ing and governing — the bringing forth and training." 
And so also Professor Schaff says, the word zexvo- 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 265 

yovla — child-bearing — " certainly includes educating 
them. Woman finds her highest dignity and purest 
happiness, not merely in being a mother, hut also in 
fulfilling all the duties of a mother in the Lord and 
for his glory." Conybeare and Howson, in their 
" Life and Epistles of St. Paul," say, " did rijz zsxvo- 
YOviaQ can not mean i in child-bearing,' as in our 
authorized version. The apostle's meaning is, that 
women are to be kept in the path of safety, not by 
taking upon themselves the office of the man — by 
taking a public part in the assemblies of the Church, 
etc. — but by the performance of the peculiar func- 
tions which God has assigned to their sex." Here, 
then, is placed the sphere of woman, in contrast 
with public functions, and this being her providential 
sphere, her rights in the management and nurture 
of childhood are as absolute as those of the father. 
This is especially the case with respect to the moral 
and religious concerns of the child. By the law of 
God they are specially committed to the mother dur- 
ing childhood. Timothy's father was a Gentile, but 
his mother being a Jewess he was brought up piously, 
and his ancestral piety runs through the maternal 
line — "the unfeigned faith which dwelt first in thy 
grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice." 2 Tim. 
i, 5. It was maternal piety that rescued Timothy 
from heathenism. Nothing is said of the father in 
this connection, save that he was a Greek. Acts xvi, 
1. The mother, in this case, asserted her right ' to 
bring up the son for the Lord. 



2 06 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. 

In 1 Tim. v, 10, the apostle again brings the pecul- 
iar sphere of woman into the honorable foreground 
of " good works." In describing the prominent fea- 
tures of character of a holy matron, u a widow, in- 
deed, who trusted in God, and continued in supplica- 
tions and prayers night and day," he says: "If she 
have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, 
if she washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved 
the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every 
good work.''' Fidelity in the training of children was 
fitly placed in the van of this honorable list, as it 
was the chief of all: and it was fitly assigned to the 
mother, as with her, most of all, is the power and 
right lodged of fashioning the character of the child. 

Augustine. Bishop of Hippo, in his " Confessions,'' 
A. D. 300, illustrates this law of the Church, and 
pays a beautiful tribute to his mother, whose piety 
and decision prevailed against the example of his un- 
believing father, so that the family were brought up 
for the Church. He says of himself, while yet a boy : 
' : I then already believed, and my mother, and the 
whole household, except my father : yet did not he 
prevail over the power of my mother's piety in me; 
that as he did not believe, so neither should I. For 
it was her earnest care that thou, my God, rather 
than he, shouldst be my father ; and in this thou 
didst aid her to prevail over her husband, whom she, 
although she was the better of the two, obeyed, be- 
cause this was obeying thee, who hast so com- 
manded.'' His father was a pagan nobleman, and, 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 207 

as might be expected from the simple contrariety of 
their religions, so also from his choleric temper, his 
harshness, and his unfaithfulness, she suffered much 
for Christ's sake in her devoted labors for the salva- 
tion of her house. Her gentleness disarmed his se- 
verity, and her decision conquered at last. At last 
her husband, with the children, were converted to 
Christ. "For what knowest thou, wife, whether 
thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, 
man, Avhether thou shalt save thy wife?" 1 Cor. 
vii, 16. Augustine beautifully says of his mother : 
"Finally, her own husband, toward the very end of 
his earthly life, did she gain unto Thee; nor had she 
to complain, after he became a Christian, of what, 
before he was a believer, she had borne from him. 
She Avas also the servant of thy servants ; whosoever 
of them knew her did much praise, and honor, and 
love thee in her ; for through the witness of the 
fruits of a holy conversation they perceived thy pres- 
ence in her heart. For she had been the wife of one 
man, had requited her parents, had governed her house 
piously, was well reported of for good works, had 
brought up children, travailing in birth of them as oft 
she saw them swerving from thee." Christian wife 
and mother, here is thy example. Firmness in prin- 
ciples, gentleness in manners, diligence in effort, faith 
in God, continuance in prayer, patience of hope, and 
the spirit of love, will conquer at last. 

We see, then, in the family a perfect religious or- 
ganization. We see the evidences of forethought and 



268 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

design in no common degree. We see provision for 
a wide and perpetual want, adaptations to ulterior and 
important ends, around all which the Almighty has 
thrown up the awful guards of both natural and 
statutory law. Here, in the family, are laid the solid 
stones of the Church's foundation, the surest pledge 
of her perpetuity and strength. 

6. The influence of family religion was a powerful 
auxiliary to the Gospel, both for its spread and per- 
manency, in the first ages. The household baptisms 
and household religion so frequently and honorably 
mentioned in the New Testament, were characteristic, 
also, of the post-apostolic period. Family worship 
was a beautiful epitome of Church worship, and sup- 
plied the juvenile members with ideas and habits of 
devotion preparative of the period when they should 
mingle in the public congregation. " These early 
Christians," says Coleman, in his Ancient Christianity 
Exemplified, "were examples of devout piety in their 
families. There, at the domestic altar, they fed the 
sacred flame of devotion, which burned in their bosom 
with a triumphant, deathless flame. There they 
formed and maintained the spirit of pure, deep, and 
earnest piety. Every master of a family fulfilled, 
within the walls of his own house, the office of private 
pastor, keeping up in it a regular course of reading, 
prayer, and private instruction to all the members of 
his household. Thus, every private house was, in the 
words of Chrysostom, '-a church to itself'" After the 
private devotions of the morning, "the family met 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 269 

for united prayer, which Was uniformly accompanied 
with reading the Scriptures. The recital of such doc- 
trine and practical sentiments as might best fortify 
them against the prevailing scandals and heresies of 
the times, constituted, also, as it would seem, part of 
their devotional exercises. In the family, as in all 
their devotions, the primitive Christians delighted to 
sing their sacred songs." At the table they prayed, 
rehearsed portions of Scripture, sang praise to God, 
and the meal being ended, they gave thanks. The 
day closed with evening prayer, as in the morning. 
Such was the religious order of the Christian family; 
and with such pious care and direction the family be- 
comes the miniature of the Church. " Speak of divine 
things," says Chrysostom, "not only in the social 
circle, but in the family — the husband with the wife, 
the father with the child ; and very frequently renew 
the subject. Let no man affirm that the child needs 
not to be addressed on these topics ; for they must be 
discoursed of, not only at sometimes, but at all times." 
"Let the child be accustomed," says Jerome, "early 
in the morning to offer up prayer and praise to God; 
and at evening again, when the day is past and gone, 
let him end his labor by bringing his evening offering 
to the Lord." Such is a brief though inadequate 
sketch of the order of a Christian family. 

7. Would the reader see the counterpart to this? 
"Would he see the boasted wisdom of man supplant- 
ing and subverting the wisdom and beneficence of the 
Creator? If so, he has only to turn to those coun- 



270 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

tries where marriage is removed from its religious 
foundations, divested of its religious character and 
ends, and the family merged in the nation, or lost in 
the masses. We will not speak now of the loss of 
family religion by yielding to a worldly spirit, by fol- 
lowing the ordinary rounds of fashion, or by sacri- 
ficing each leisure hour, due to the quiet home circle, 
to the absorbing and exorbitant demands of business. 
American wives and children may, indeed, often com- 
plain — complain, perhaps, more than those of any 
other nation — that the cares and claims of business 
have robbed them of the cheerful fireside conversation 
of husbands and fathers. And the Church of God 
may complain that the cares of this life are crowding 
out the services of the domestic altar, and chilling 
the spirit of family devotion. The haste to be rich 
has often cast its blight over the fairest hopes of the 
Church, by leaving no time or relish for the exercises 
and culture of family religion. But it is not of these 
adverse influences that we now speak, but, at the 
hazard of seeming to make a digression from the di- 
rect line of argument, we invite the reader to a 
hasty glimpse of the contrast to a Christian family, 
as proposed in certain false schemes of nature and of 
religion. 

The perversity of man has attempted, in different 
ways and in every age, to subvert or modify the be- 
neficent order of the Creator. Human devices have 
been substituted for Divine wisdom. The pretentious 
claims of philosophy, "falsely so called," have been 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 271 

hostile to the institutions of God in nature no less 
than in religion. But in social life and religion, 
whatever institution has its root in our nature, or is 
adapted to meet any of its primary wants, must con- 
tinue to command the common assent and judgment, 
to control the common custom, and in the end to tri- 
umph against the devices of a false philosophy. 

8. The common error of all theories, ancient or 
modern, which have attempted to set aside the family 
order is, that marriage and the family relation are 
only conventional arrangements adopted by society 
for its convenience or benefit; not natural laws, or 
the immediate and necessary result of natural laws. 
By these reformers the family institution is looked 
upon simply as an expedient, somewhat as they look 
upon a particular form of civil government, or a par- 
ticular custom of any age, and therefore may at any 
time be abolished to give place to another structure 
of society, which, in the opinions of men, might prom- 
ise a greater benefit or pleasure. In fact, the rela- 
tion of sexes and the whole social structure are, in 
the estimation of these men, subjects to be experi- 
mented upon, and the past experience of mankind 
and the voice of Revelation are to be treated as the 
products of darker ages, wherein ignorance and super- 
stition held sway. But with them the progress of 
philosophy has now discovered a better path, the laws 
of nature are now better understood, religion is found 
to be a myth, and they demand the emancipation of 
the race from those shackles. From such principles 



272 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

of fundamental skepticism on the natural and moral 
law of the family relation, men have, in different ways 
and for different ostensible ends, invaded and deranged 
this social domain. 

9. Heathenism, by its theories of polygamy, divorce, 
infanticide, and general dissoluteness of morals, has 
always been at war with the original family institu- 
tion. Whatever system of philosophy, morals, or 
religion goes to harden the heart and deprave the 
morals, must in the same degree tend to subvert the 
family. And hence it is that in all heathen lands, in 
all ages of the world, a low type of family has ex- 
isted. Roman morals, as to family life in the time of 
Christ, and Greek morals at the time of their highest 
prosperity in letters and philosophy, were deplorably 
and alarmingly corrupt, and at last undermined their 
whole social and political life. The laws of ancient 
Sparta considered children as the property of the 
State, and the boys were taken from their parents at 
seven years of age, and brought up at a public table, 
at the public expense, to be soldiers. This rending 
of natural ties, when it became the general custom, 
and the settled State policy, and the characteristic of 
national education, was well calculated to destroy all 
natural sensibility. It might make a nation of fero- 
cious soldiers, but must induce a low type of culture 
and civilization — two results which Sparta largely 
realized. Even Plato taught that the most perfect 
theory of life was free from the impediments which 
existing laws and government threw across the path, 



CHURCH RELATION 01 INT AN . 273 

wherein the individual was left free to be gui-1 
philosophy. His ideal of society was that wherein 
there was a community of wru 3, children 

the property of the State. Defective children might, 
therefore, he exposed. Tims a system of education 
si structure was proposed as a model, which 
chilled and annihilated the finest sensibilities of our 
nature, as well as the fundamental distinctions of 
morality. In these views he was sustained by some 
of the greatest names of heathen antiquity, as Aris- 
totle and Cicero. 

10. The Papal Church, from opposite motives — mo- 
tives of the highest piety — has cast dishonor upon the 
family relation. This she has done from adopting the 
principles of heathen philosophy, and she has done 
it in her system of monasticism and the celibacy of 
the clergy. Monasticism appeared in the Christian 
Church in the third century, and in Europe in the 
following century. It was indigenous in Egypt and 
the East, but was introduced into Rome niam.lv bv 
Jerome, author of the Vulgate Latin version of Scrip- 
ture. Monasticism was founded on that dogma of 
heathen philosophy which taught the essential and 
eternal antagonism of matter and spirit, and hence 
also of the body and soul of man. Matter was held 
to be essentially evil and perverse ; spirit essentially 
pure, inclined to sin and corrupted only by its 
connection with matter. The soul of man beingr 
purely spiritual as to its essence, and the body be- 
ing of the gross substance of matter, were, therefore, 



214: THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

in essential antagonism, and the soul obtained the 
mastery over bodily appetites, and hence over the 
sources of sin, by subjecting the body to mortifica- 
tions, penances, fasts, and austere self-denials. The 
complete conquest of sin was to be effected only by 
absolute self-abnegation and the annihilation of bodily 
desires and affections. Perpetual celibacy, the living 
in deserts and caves, and subsequently in monasteries, 
retirement from the world and its cares, the perpetual 
recital of prayers, infliction of fasts and penances, 
solitude and meditation, these were the necessary 
steps to the highest attainments of the spiritual life. 
Marriage and the family life were by this theory made 
incompatible with the highest state of piety and devo- 
tion. This delusion spread like wildfire in the Church, 
and soon enlisted its thousands of deluded devotees. 
In Rome and Italy even, sunk as the people were in 
the last degree of licentiousness, the enthusiasm kin- 
dled by this spirit of ascetic Christianity, awakened 
the ancient heroism of the Roman character, and men 
and women emulated the honor of this self-immolating 
life as next in merit to a martyr's crown. It was soon 
perceived that if celibacy was essential to the highest 
purity, and to avoid partaking of the "inextinguisha- 
ble impurity of matter,*' the clergy ought certainly to 
practice it as due to the superior sanctity of then pro- 
fession, and accordingly Pope Siricius passed the first 
law enforcing the celibacy of the clergy in A. D. 385. 
Though not important to our argument, it is at least- 
curious to observe the absurdities of error. Truth 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 275 

never contradicts itself — error always. The Papal 
Church holds to seven sacraments; namely, baptism, 
the Lord's Supper, marriage, confirmation, penance, 
orders, and extreme unction. By the law enjoining 
celibacy of the clergy, therefore, it follows, that by 
conforming to one of these sacraments, namely, mar- 
riage, the individual morally disqualifies himself for 
another, namely, priestly orders ; and inversely, by 
taking orders he is prohibited the other sacrament of 
marriage. But such contradictions are no obstacles 
to a faith that defies reason, and makes void the sim- 
ple Word of God by tradition. 

The effect of all these monstrous outgrowths of 
superstition is matter of history. It is enough to 
say that these outrages upon nature, these insults to 
the wisdom of God and reproach upon the sanctity 
of the marriage covenant, have wrought their vindic- 
tive retribution in the demoralization of the Church 
and society wherever the Papacy has held sway. 
The darkest pictures of social depravity the world 
has ever seen have resulted from contempt of the 
marriage relation, whether from pretended motives 
of religion, as in monachism, or from infidelity and 
licentiousness, as in socialism and communism. Prot- 
estant Christianity rebukes these revolutionary and 
demoralizing schemes, and places true piety, virtue, 
and social prosperity where the Bible has placed 
them — in self-government, submission to God, and 
the practice of all social duty — placing the family 
relation at the foundation both of the religious and 



276 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

social economy. '-'Marriage is honorable in all,'' is 
a Bible maxim. Under the benign sway of the 
Protestant religion — to use the "words of the learned 
Milner — '-the family life, the life of the Christian 
family, has resumed its place as the highest state of 
Christian grace and perfection.'"' The outbreaks of 
heresy, in the forms of unchecked licentiousness, 
which appeared at different times in Italy, France, 
Germany, and Switzerland, under the various titles 
of "Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit," "Ana- 
baptists,*' the •'Libertines'' of Geneva, and others, 
were but the reactionary effects of the system and 
philosophy of monasticism. 

11. It is remarkable how traditional error, which 
has long been imbedded in philosophy and in re- 
ligious faith, will still continue secretly to affect the 
mind long after it has cast off the slough of its 
putrid and dead form. It is said the pious John 
Fletcher was under the influence of a belief in the 
inherent incompatibility of marriage "with the highest 
sanctity, till one day his eyes were opened by read- 
ing Gen. v. 21-24: "And Enoch lived sixty and five 
years, and begat Methusalah. And Enoch "walked 
with God after he begat Methusalah three hundred 
years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the 
days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty and 
five years; and Enoch "walked "with God; and he was 
not, for God took him." "When men become wiser 
and holier than their Creator, so as to believe that 
the relations he intended for man are not the best 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. li<7 

and the purest, and thus make his wisdom and law 
void by their philosophy, it requires but little dis- 
cernment to foresee their own ruin, and the mis- 
chievous effects of their delusion upon others. "Be 
not righteous overmuch : neither make thyself over- 
wise. Why shouldst thou destroy thyself':"' Eccl. 
vii, 16. 

12. Communism and socialism in Europe are words 
familiarly understood. The former professes to in- 
troduce a community of goods, and an equalization 
of the physical comforts of life, as a leading measure 
for the amelioration of society, but always carries 
with it the theory of the abrogation of the family 
compact; while the latter aims directly at the recon- 
struction of society upon a new basis, and, in its 
turn also, makes the abrogation of the conjugal and 
family relation a fundamental point. Both are the 
offspring of radical and avowed infidelity. Socialism 
is an attempt to construct society upon a plan totally 
devoid of moral and religious foundations. Its views 
of the soul and its destiny are pantheistic; the future 
life is utterly ignored, and the present world is the 
limit of its philosophy. It assumes that the nature 
of man is pure, and is to be developed and educated 
according to innate laws of health and instinct, and 
conformably to the suggestions of science and the 
adaptations of external nature. It aims, in short, 
to make a perfect animal, susceptible of the highest 
animal and earthly pleasure. The asceticism of the 
heathen and of the monastic orders cast a reproach 



278 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

upon the marriage relation, on the ground that it 
presented a bar to the soul's highest purity, and 
brought the spirit into subjection to the body; but 
socialism rejects the marriage relation because it is a 
barrier to the widest sensuous indulgence, and brings 
the body into subjection to the soul. The character 
of Rousseau, whose writings have made a deeper im- 
pression upon the French mind and character in this 
respect than those of almost -any other author, may 
be quoted in fairness as a sample of the effects of 
this philosophy on the natural affections. Rousseau 
lived twenty years with his mistress without mar- 
riage. Five children who were born to them "were 
coolly deposited in the foundling hospital." Some 
of his patrons at length made an effort to identify 
these children, but failed. They could not be found. 
Rousseau and his mistress had lost all trace of them, 
and received the failure of his friends to identify 
them with profound indifference. Tins is the fruit 
of socialism, and of all other theories of society 
which annihilate the family. A foundling hospital 
for the reception of children ! "Would the reader 
know what such an institution is? A more decent 
form of infanticide. 

A foundling hospital is an institution for the recep- 
tion and support of deserted children — children either 
illegitimate, or whose parents have cast them off to 
avoid the trouble and care of their support. The first 
dictate of savage nature, in such a case, is to destroy 
the child. A milder doom is to expose it, in hope 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 279 

that Borne one more humane may pick it up and rear 
it. Foundling hospitals are for the reception of these 
infant outcasts. " The exposure of children," says 
Gibbon, " was the prevailing and stubborn vice of an- 
tiquity." It was common in all heathen countries, 
even the most polished and enlightened. Of course, 
natural affection and the love of family must be pre- 
viously extinguished. In ancient and modern coun- 
tries humanity has prompted to some provision for 
these hapless victims of hard-heartedness and sensu- 
ality. They abound in Europe, the land where Pa- 
pacy and infidelity have had their sway. In the 
Papal States, where the power of the priesthood is 
the highest, the dissoluteness of family morals and 
the increase of foundlings rival the most infidel por- 
tions of Europe. Often poverty overbears natural 
affection, and the parent seeks this public charity, 
with all its increased ratio of mortality, as a means 
of support for the child, rather than brook the ter- 
rors of want at home ; but more commonly a low 
type of family affection, or a reckless sensuality, are 
the sources from which these asylums are filled. 
" The best foundling hospitals," says M. J. Michelct, 
"may be said to be the cemeteries. In the hospital 
at Moscow, out of the thirty-seven thousand children 
received in twenty years, only one thousand were 
saved; and in that of Dublin only two hundred out 
of twelve thousand, that is, one-sixtieth. What shall 
I say of the Paris institution? I have seen and ad- 
mired it, but its results are not very accurately known. 






280 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

In it are brought together two very different classes 
of children : 1. Orphans who are received there after 
being reared, and these stand some chance of living ; 
2. Foundlings, properly so called, children brought 
thither at birth; these are sent away to be nursed, 
and their life is prolonged for some months." The 
average life of the foundlings, of which, in France 
alone, in 1856, there were twenty thousand, does not 
exceed four years. The rest of Europe, generally, is 
no better. 

Here is a picture. When the family is annihilated, 
or its bands loosened and its affections chilled, who, 
then, will take care of the children? What public 
institutions shall take the place of family, and sup- 
ply the offices of parents ? The Christian religion 
proceeds upon the principle that the Creator has im- 
planted in our nature laws of social development as 
immutable as those of animal and vegetable physiol- 
ogy, and that it is in harmony with these laws alone 
that any successful and just system of education can 
operate. The Christian Revelation declares as a fact, 
that the primary organization of our race was in the 
family, and this organization is assumed to be pursu- 
ant to those laws which the Creator had implanted in 
nature. The child is at first a creature of sensibility 
and imagination, afterward of reason and conscience. 
How shall it be developed in its higher intellective 
and moral nature ? Who shall have the care of those 
incipient years, when, as the mind and character have 
not yet attained, but are only receiving, their form 



CHURCH RELATION OF IXFAX 281 

and direction, the most delicate attention? and the 
skillful foster-care are necessary? Miehelet, 
grappling with the problem of childhood-culture, well 
that to turn it to things ict as philoso- 

phy or mathematics, without injury to the child, 
'• many years of well-managed transitions are neces- 
sary — very short and very easy little tasks, diversi- 
fied with action, but not automatic. Our asyl 
he adds. " are still far from fulfilling these conditions.*'' 
Ay, and so it must forever be. No asvlums. no ays- 
tern of schools or seminaries, can ever supply the 
offices which the God of nature has lodged only with 
the parent. The formation of character is the deli- 
cate office of affection guided by n a -\ich affec- 
tion, such patience and cheerful assiduity as only the 
parent has. Simple instruction in science and object- 
ive truth, being more purely a work of the reason, 
may more safely be intrusted to other hands, at a 
later period. 

But communism and socialism, assuming that man, 
when in a state of nature, is in a state of chaos, like 
_ mic matter, and that society must organize 
itself, propose to make provision for even his in- 
fantile wants by public institutions or conventional 
arrangements. Robert Owen, the modern apostle of 
socialism in England, says: '-The affections of par- 
ents for their own children are too strong for their 
2 nents ever to do justice to themselves, their 
children, or the public, in the education of their own 

children, even if private families possessed the ma- 

U 






282 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

chinery — which they never do — to well manufacture 
character from birth." It is no wonder that men who 
can utter such sentiments have wearied themselves, 
like the men of Sodom, in fruitless efforts to find the 
door of knowledge, feeling about and groping in the 
darkness of atheism. Fourier complained to the last 
that none of his disciples, not even the most ardent, 
fully understood his system in all its complications. 
How different the simple provisions of God in the 
family institution ! France itself, though in 1793 she 
abjured all religion, and declared that the deities of 
the French people thereafter should be Liberty, 
Equality, and Reason, and wrote over the cemeteries, 
"Death is an eternal sleep," can not commit her des- 
tinies to her atheistic philosophers ; but low as the 
type of family is in her demoralized population, it 
can not be totally dissolved either by the arts of 
sophistry or the lusts of sensuality. 

13. These theories of foreign infidelity have been 
brought to our shores, and earnest efforts have been 
made to plant them in American soil. We have seen, 
and still see, experiments made of forming communi- 
ties upon the destruction of the family relation. Pe- 
riodicals claiming high respectability have advocated 
them for their supposed industrial and commercial 
advantages ; the American people have been invited 
to test the principles; this country has been con- 
sidered as offering a favorable spot for the trial of 
this new philosophy, and American youth have be- 
come dangerously tinctured with the dissolute theory 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 283 

of morals which underlie and pervade the whole. 
The overthrow of true religion can never be effected 
without the overthrow of the family, and the breaking 
down of those guards of morality and piety which 
God has erected in the relations of that sacred do- 
main. From heathenism, infidelity, or any false sys- 
tem of Christianity, we have no hope for the eleva- 
tion and honor of this institution. Pure Christianity 
alone can effect this. " God setteth the solitary in 
families." As the Spirit of the Gospel develops in 
the faith and consciences of mankind, the finer sensi- 
bilities of our nature will gain the ascendency; a 
true and natural social order will arise; and, under 
the protective influence of religion, our humanity will 
reach its highest bliss and perfection. But the mis- 
sion of a modern Elijah is needed "to turn the hearts 
of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the 
children to their fathers." "Under the influence of 
sin," says Professor Schaff, "marriage has degen- 
erated, and Christianity alone restores it to its proper 
dignity and significance." 



284 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 



SECTION V. 

THE RELIGIOUS ORDER OF THE FAMILY FUNDAMENTAL TO THE 
GOSPEL SCHEME OF REFORMATION— ITS RESTI- 
TUTION PROMISED. 

Our argument stated — Precept of the Decalogue — Reaffirmed in 
New Testament — Heathenism destroys natural affection — Law of 
Trij)tolemus — Mai. iv, 6 — Quoted by the son of Sirach, showing how 
deeply the Jewish mind was affected by it — Quoted by the angel as 
the first reiteration of Old Testament prophecy in the New Testa- 
ment — Quoted by our Lord — By Peter — Christ defends the family 
obligations against the traditionists. 

We have noticed the tenor of Bible precepts bear- 
ing on the family relations, but there are several 
passages which deserve a still farther notice. Our 
argument is twofold: first, to prove that the end or 
design of the family institution is religious ; and, 
secondly, that this institution thus organized or con- 
stituted for religious ends is a normal force and in- 
strumentality of the Church. A few facts shed a 
volume of light upon the manifest intentions of Holy 
Scripture, and show with what earnestness the Divine 
Mind has labored to impress upon us the religious 
importance of the family. We recall a passage 
already quoted. 

1. First, it is written in the Decalogue, "Honor 
thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be 
long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee." Consider that this commandment was not 
written on parchment with the general code of 
Moses, but on tables of stone by the finger of 



CHUROH RELATION OF INFANTS. 285 

God. and is part of the fundamental law of nature 
and of all true religion. In all the subsequent re- 
iterations of the essential laws of morality and re- 
ligion, whether of the Jewish or Christian systems, 
this is repeated. Thus it is repeated by Moses in 
his Deuteronomy, or the Second Law — chap, v, 16 — 
and by Christ to the young man, when he would 
enumerate only the chief of the commandments, the 
keeping of which was necessary to his entering into 
life. Matt, xix, 19. Again, consider that the word 
1?3 — honor — denotes the acknowledgment of the 
relation and authority of the parent, and the render- 
ing due reverence and obedience to the same. It is 
a general term, covering all duties to parents as 
such, whether of inward respect and affection, or of 
outward obedience, support, and protection. But this 
duty can never be done without a religious recog- 
nition. The parent is assumed by the Decalogue to 
be under the law of God, and his most emphatic in- 
vestiture of authority relates to the duties and obli- 
gations of family religion. The promise annexed is 
a covenant promise — a promise never carried outside 
of the covenant relation. 

The point of the argument lies here : as the au- 
thority of the parent is a Divine investiture for re- 
ligious ends, and hence charged with religious re- 
sponsibility ; so the "honor" due the parent, as thus 
invested, is reverence for that authority as religious. 
Dropping out the religious idea and motive, the 
"honor" paid by the child never meets the limit 



286 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

and measure of the command, never fulfills the end 
and design of the precept. The spirit and ultimate 
end of the commandment can be nothing less than 
what was contemplated in the family institution; 
namely, religion, and that obedience which fulfills 
the spirit of the law must fulfill the ends for which 
it was enacted. Again consider- that, as Paul quotes 
it in Eph. vi, 2, a this is the first commandment 
with promise" It is the fifth in the Decalogue, but 
the first with a promise annexed. A specialty is 
attached to it hereby. The "promise" is, indeed, 
couched in words as if only a temporal blessing 
were intended, but we know that this is only a 
mode of speaking conformable to Old-Testament 
usage, whereby a temporal good is granted as the 
reward of religious fidelity, and a spiritual good 
typified at the same time, by the earthly blessing. 
"Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days 
may he prolonged, and that it may go well with thee 
in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." 
Deut. v, 16. Or, as Paul has it, "that it may be 
well with thee, and that thou mayest live long upon 
the earth." On the other hand, " disobedience to 
parents," and being "without natural affection," are 
reckoned among the vilest offshoots of heathenism 
and irreligion, and are one of the powerful causes of 
social corruption and Divine penal judgments. See 
Rom. i, 30, 31 ; 2 Tim. iii, 2, 3. Yet even heathen- 
ism was not always untrue to nature, and to those 
primary indications of religious destiny which God 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 287 

implanted in our social constitution. Plutarch 
Bays o[' Triptolemns, whose laws were few and simple, 
that they wore ma inly compressed in the precepts, 
"Honor your parents; worship the gods; hurt not 
animals."' Certainly this is a comprehensive creed, 
and at least shows the comparative estimate placed 
on filial obligation by putting it in the foreground 
of fundamental law. In Ezekiel xxii, 7, the "setting 
light by father and mother" is first in the enumera- 
tion of the national sins of Judah, which brought 
upon the land the terrible judgments of God. 

Now, what does all this teach us but that dis- 
obedience and disrespect to parents is one of the 
highest marks of impiety and irreligion? Repeatedly, 
where the foundations of practical religion are laid, 
we find this relation of the family specially enumera- 
ted and guarded. There is no stability or extension 
of religion in society without it ; but, on the contrary, 
with the family relation religiously preserved and fol- 
lowed out, religion is supplied with one of its strong- 
est defenses and most poAverful encouragements. 

2. But a second fact is to be taken in connection 
with this. The Old Testament canon closes with a 
remarkable announcement. The last written utter- 
ance of its last faithful prophet is most ominous and 
suggestive. " Behold, I will send you Elijah the 
prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful 
•lay of the Lord : and he shall turn the heart of the 
fathers to the children, and the heart of the children 
to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth ivith a 



288 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

curse" Mai. iv, 6. Does this prophecy look for- 
ward to the restoration of the primitive, religious 
order of the family? No other construction is easy, 
natural, and consonant to all the connecting facts. 
To give the particle ^J£, translated " to" the sense of 
with, and read it, "the heart of the fathers with their 
children," as indicating that whole families, fathers 
and children together, were to be turned or converted, 
is a possible sense, and would imply the order of fam- 
ily religion, which is the sense for which we here con- 
tend. But this gives not the force of the passage. 
It is well enough translated in the common English; 
or perhaps we should take its more radical sense of 
down upon, resting upon, as we find it in 2 Kings xiv, 
1: "The king's heart was upon Absalom." This set- 
ting " the heart of the father upon the child, and the 
heart of the child upon the father," with reference 
to religious ends and religious duties; this turning 
family affections inwardly, as it were upon each other, 
and thus back into their proper channel, making them 
subservient to their original ends — namely, to secure 
u a godly seed;" this is the point of the prophet's ut- 
terance. Church reformation begins with family ref- 
ormation. " Every man should build over against his 
own house." The religious claims of the children 
must first be looked after. 

This prophetic utterance of Malachi is of such 
marked public significance as to have attracted the 
attention of the wise and good of his nation in later 
times, yea, of inspired men, and even of Christ him- 



CHURCH RELATION OP INFANTS. 289 

self. In the apocryphal writings of the " Son of Si- 
rach," the pious writer says of the prophet Elijah, 
that kk he was ordained for reproofs in their times, to 
pacify the wrath of the Lord's judgment, before it 
brake forth into fury, and to turn the heart of 
the father unto the son, and to restore the tribes 
of Jacob." Ecclus. xlviii, 10. This is evidently a 
quotation from Malachi, and shows how deeply his 
words had sunk into the heart of the Jewish nation. 
And observe, the method in w T hich Elijah conducted 
his reformation was adapted and intended to bring 
back the nation to the religion of their pious ances- 
tors, and to restore the religious order of the family, 
so that the fathers being right and established in the 
true worship of God, the children should be taught to 
walk in their ways. Traditional religion — that is, re- 
ligion descending from father to son — was the great 
idea in the mind of Malachi and of the Son of Sirach 
who quotes him. And in this method, says he, he 
was "ordained" to "restore the tribes of Jacob." 
This was literally Elijah's work, thus to restore the 
lapsed tribes of Israel in his day. But this element 
of his prophetic commission became the foundation of 
a most important prophecy uttered by Malachi, as we 
have seen above ; and this prophecy aw T akened an ex- 
pectation in the minds of the Jews that before the 
coming of Messiah — before the "great day of the 
Lord" — Elijah would reappear, resume his functions 
as a reformer, and place the families of Israel back 
in the faith of their ancestors, and restore family 



290 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

religion, so that the children should thenceforward walk 
in the steps of their pious fathers. This particular 
feature of the expected reformation in Messiah's time 
was so necessary to the Church, its purity, establish- 
ment and extension, that it became the burden of the 
first reiteration of Old Testament prophecy in the 
opening volume of the New. Of John the Baptist — 
the second Elijah — and before his birth, the angel 
said to Zacharias, "He shall be great in the sight of 
the Lord, .... and many of the children of Israel 
shall turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go 
before him in the spirit and power of Elias, TO TURN 

THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS TO THE CHILDREN, and 

the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make 
ready a people prepared for the Lord." Luke i, 15- 
17. " He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to their 
children," that is, says Bengel, " He shall restore that 
parental love which had grown cold in the prevailing 
moral degradation." The passage stands opposed to 
that neglect and indifference of natural affection de- 
scribed, Jer. xlvii, 3 : " The fathers shall not look back 
to their children;" denoting not only a condition of 
public terror, but a notable and ominous enfeebling 
of the family ties. It is observable that the words in 
Luke, " The disobedient to the wisdom of the just," 
form a parallelism with the words of Malachi, " The 
heart of the children to their parents." The former 
are to be taken as exegetical of the latter. Disobe- 
dience is the characteristic sin of childhood and youth, 
in that state of society where the religious obligations 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 291 

of the family are despised. Where Malachi uses the 
word "children," Luke uses "disobedient," and instead 
of "parents," in Malachi, Luke simply has "the just." 

Both refer to the same great reformation which was 
to begin with the family — "He shall turn the hearts 
of the disobedient [children], to the wisdom of the just 
[parents].'' Now, in this great reformation, this "pre- 
paring a people for the Lord," this "restoring the 
tribes of Israel,'' why is the specification of parents and 
children kept up with such particularity and emphasis ? 
Why this significant pointing inwardly, into the interior 
relations and arrangements of the family? That this 
is the fact the language fully proves. No other sense 
is adequate to the peculiar force and structure of the 
words. Indeed, no other sense could meet the point 
of the prophecy and set forth the character of the 
reformation foretold, for it was the restoration of that 
true traditional religion, that religion which should 
descend from parent to child by the careful nurture 
of doctrine and discipline, which was the very point 
and burden of the prophecy. It was this very work 
of family reclamation which our Lord calls " restoring 
all things" — "Jesus answered, Elias truly shall first 
come and restore all things," Matt, xvii, 11 — which 
the apostle Peter, carrying the prophecy still into the 
future, as if its perfect fulfillment was to be realized 
only in the millennial period of the Church, calls " the 
restitution of all things;" that is, literally, d-oxazacr- 
zdazcoc, the restoration, or placing back all tilings in 
their former state. Acts iii, 21. 



292 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Here, then, we find the last prophetic record of 
the old dispensation, and the first prophetic annun- 
ciation of the new, to contain a description of some 
great effect, some important reformation, to be wrought 
upon the family. The burden of the last of the old 
prophets, as he stood upon the outmost verge of his 
dispensation, and looked forward through the vista of 
centuries, to the times of reformation and the long- 
expected advent of the Messiah, was the degenerate 
and lapsed condition of the family empire, and the 
first obstruction to Messiah's coming and reign to be 
removed, was the restitution of the religious order 
of the household. In the Decalogue, God had con- 
ditioned the perpetuity of the Hebrew possessions in 
Canaan, on the perpetual religious order of the fam- 
ily : " That thy days may he long upon the land which 
the Lord thy God giveth tliee" was the tenor and scope 
of the promise made to filial obedience: "Lest L come 
and smite the land with a curse,'' was the maledic- 
tion threatened upon family alienations and irreligion. 
Before Christ could come, or the way for his com- 
ing be prepared, a great prophet was to arise, the 
prototype of the illustrious Elijah, clothed "in his 
spirit and power,'"' "to turn the hearts of the fathers 
to then children, and the hearts of children to their 
fathers" — to bring back the alienated and disordered 
members of the household compact to the primitive 
design and standard, so that, in the language of Mal- 
achi, from the sanctified union of the twofold headship 
of the family, the Divine Author might "carefully 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 293 

seek a seed of God." "What else can be the import 
of these most instructive and suggestive communica- 
tions ? The perpetuity and wellbeing of the Hebrew 
nation hung on this condition. The wellbeing of the 
race, and the stability and triumphs of the Church, 
depend on it as well. The whole tendency of the 
Gospel is to realize this prophecy. 

3. Still another fact call to mind in this connection. 
At the time of our Savior's coming, the Jewish peo- 
ple were notoriously remiss and culpable in their teach- 
ings and practices relating to filial duty and parental 
authority. The teachings of their Rabbis had exactly 
reversed the law of Moses, and defeated the grand 
design of the family scheme. Family religion was 
an impossibility in the spirit and natural workings 
of the "traditions of the elders." Our Lord met it 
as one of the chief nullifying expedients of the tra- 
ditionists, the ruling party among the Jews, for set- 
ting aside the order of nature, and making void the 
law of God. Hear the burning words of Christ to 
the Jews, recorded in Matt, xv, 3-9 : 

"Why do ye also transgress the commandment of 
God by your tradition? For God commanded, say- 
ing, Honor thy father and thy mother : and he that 
curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But 
ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his 
mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be 
profited by me; and honor not his father or his 
mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the 
commandment of God of none effect by your tradi- 



294 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

tion. Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of 
you saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with 
their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but 
their heart is far from me. But in vain they do 
worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments 
of men." 

Not only had the law regulating the relation of 
parent and child been invaded and practically an- 
nulled, but they had ascended a step higher, and cor- 
rupted the fountain-head of all family religion and 
order, by relaxing the laws of marriage and divorce. 
Our Lord charged them with general religious defec- 
tion and dereliction, and the tradition which nullified 
filial obligation and deranged the family compact is 
advanced into the fore-front of the representation, not 
only as a specimen of the causes leading to this re- 
sult, but as being itself a leading cause. As they 
sundered the bands of parental authority, they re- 
moved the restraints of youthful discipline, and the 
first grand reliance of Providence for the religious 
nurture and admonition of the child. As they dis- 
solved the obligation of filial obedience, they thereby, 
by inevitable consequence, weakened the bonds of the 
Church covenant, perverted their piety, and armed it 
against both nature and humanity, and thus unsettled 
the foundations of society. For it must be remem- 
bered that it was under the pretense and profession 
of serving God and performing an act of excessive 
piety, by dedicating the proceeds of their labor to the 
sacred altar, that they were thus dissolved from the 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 205 

obligation of parental support. According to this 
tradition, whenever a child should make a vow to de- 
vote his earnings and his means to the sacred treas- 
ury, or the altar, he could then turn to his father or 
his mother, and coolly say, kk That money, or earthly 
Babstance, by which thou mightest otherwise have 
been profited by me, is now devoted to religious uses; 
I have made it corbam, or a sacred gift and offering." 
In such a case, says the godless traditionist, the child 
is free henceforward from all obligation to support 
his parents. "Ye suffer him,'"' says Mark — vii, 12 — 
" no more to do aught for his father or his mother." 
This whole teaching was a mere craft and policy of 
the priests and Pharisees of the day, to turn the 
money of the people into their own pockets. It was 
part of a stupendous system of indulgences for en- 
riching and aggrandizing a corrupt priesthood. In 
the code of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver, it was pro- 
vided that the son was released from the obligation 
of giving his father food, if the latter had neglected 
to give him a trade — a provision more creditable to 
human nature and to religion than the above mon- 
strous dogma of pharisaic superstition. 

But how easy to perceive that, with such views of 
the primary relations of the family, with such slight 
and contemptuous estimates of the most delicate and 
wondrous arrangements of God for the early and per- 
manent piety of the child, which are found in the 
sympathies and unselfish affections of the parents, 
religion would be swept away at a stroke, and the 



296 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

vilest form of heathenism left in its stead. When the 
heart has learned to trample on the sacred ties and 
sensibilities of the parental and filial relations, and to 
do it from a professed motive to render more exalted 
and distinguished service to the God vrho made us, 
it is then that our nature turns to adamant, and the 
human heart is arrayed in deadly hostility against all 
true religion no less than against all natural instinct. 
Hovr different the example of Him who on the cross 
remembered and tenderly provided for his mother, 
and has made affection and duty to parents the step- 
ping-stone of the well-taught heart to the higher and 
sublimer offices of piety and submission to God ! 

4. Such are some of the admonitions we gather 
from Holy Writ. Let the reader compare the fore- 
going hints of Scripture carefully, and he will become 
more and more impressed that, in the eye of God, 
religion is to begin in the family, is to find its great- 
est establishment there, and the decline and decay of 
family religion is the sure evidence of general spirit- 
ual darkness in the Church, and the precursor of a 
"smiting curse''* which shall fall with unerring pre- 
cision on the earth. The awful import of Malachr s 
words rolled its solemn reverberations through the 
fallen Jewish Church, who, by their human traditions, 
had unsettled the relations of husband and wife, par- 
ent and child, and thus "made void the law of God;'*' 
and it reaches down to us, and will forever sound 
its warning tones on the walls of a godless Church 
and family. "That thy days may be long upon the 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 2\) 7 

land,' 1 is the blessing promised; "Lest I smite the 
land with a curse," is the malediction threatened. 
Let the Church see to it. 



SECTION VI. 



SECOND STAGE OF FAMILY CHURCH-LIFE— TEACHING 3T PUBLIC 
INSTITUTIONS. 

Second stage of family Church-life defined — Examples — Passover 
institution — Unleavened bread — Redemption of the first-born — Mon- 
uments at Gilgal — General statement of Deuteronomy vi, 20-25 — Of 
Hezekiah — Of Asaph — Jewish law for admitting a child to the Pass- 
over — Point of the argument under this head stated. 

1. We have endeavored to set forth the doctrines 
that religion is the end of the family relation; that 
the family is a normal Church agency and element; 
that the first stage of the Church -life of the child 
was in the family, wherein the parent becomes the 
appointed teacher and administrator of discipline — 
wherein general or first truths of religion are im- 
parted, and simple habits of piety formed; and that 
all Scripture precept and teaching bearing on the 
relations of parent and child prove this, and assume 
both the parents and the children to be in covenant 
with God. 

We now push this same thought a step further, 
and observe that the Scriptures make provision for 
the instruction of children, and often address them 
in a manner to indicate some advance in intellect, 



298 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

some degree of responsible judgment and reason — 
enough to inquire, understand, and remember in mat- 
ters of the simplest truth — and yet that their age is 
too tender to be removed from parental oversight 
and responsibility. The period of which we now 
propose to speak may be denominated the second 
stage of the Church-life of childhood, and is charac- 
terized by two features: Eirst, the child is taught 
by public institutions and ordinances as well as by 
simple precept, a fact which indicates that the age 
of intelligent inquiry and discrimination has com- 
menced; and, second, that the ministry and Church 
membership are brought in conjointly with the parent 
to inculcate the necessary truths and exert the re- 
quired influence. The view of the developing Church- 
life of the child, as set forth in these improved and 
advanced methods of spiritual culture, is not fanciful 
or incidental, but is, as we shall see, a pervading 
and ever-repeated form of Scriptural precept and 
recognition. 

2. We will notice first the instruction of children 
by public ordinances, which supposes the child to 
be old enough to inquire into and understand their 
meaning. Take for example the Passover — Exodus 
xii, 26 — " And it shall come to pass, when your chil- 
dren say unto you, What mean you by this service? 
that ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's 
Passover, who passed over the houses of the children 
of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians 
and delivered our houses." In this precept is com- 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 299 

prehended all the import — historical, providential, and 
moral — of that impressive ordinance of the Passover, 
and the connecting feast of "unleavened bread." In 
Ex. xiii, 7, 8, the import of the eating bitter herbs 
and unleavened bread is distinctly mentioned as a 
theme of instruction in connection with the Passover 
lamb. 

Take the case of the redemption of the first-born, 
as recorded Ex. xiii, 11-15, and detailed in Num. 
xviii, 15. The first-born male of man and of beast 
was to be devoted to God, but the first-born child 
and the first-born of unclean animals were to be re- 
deemed with a price, while those of other animals 
were to be offered in sacrifice. This ceremony taught 
them that their first-born were forfeit to God by his 
act of preservation in Egypt, and hence holy; and 
the first-born children might have been claimed for 
the sanctuary or priestly service, but God permitted 
the parent to resume the offspring by the payment 
of a redemption price. Num. iii, 11-13. Now, God 
says of this ordinance relating to the first-born : " And 
it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, 
saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, 
By strength of hand the Lord brought us from Egypt, 
from the house of bondage ; and it came to pass, when 
Pharaoh would hardly let the people go, that the Lord 
slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the 
first-born of man and the first-born of beast," etc. 
Here, then, is another institution that had a historic 
and a spiritual significance, fundamental to the the- 



300 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

ocracy, which was to be explained to the children 
so early in life as they should be able to ask, "What 
is this?" 

Another great historic fact in the providential his- 
tory of the nation, recorded in Josh, iv, 4-7, 21, was 
to be explained to the children by a "sign" or mon- 
ument when they should be old enough to inquire 
for the explanation. Twelve men of the tribes were 
to take each a large stone from the bottom of Jordan, 
and with them erect twelve monuments on the western 
side ; " and Joshua spake unto the children of Israel, 
saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in 
time to come, saying, What mean these stones? then 
shall ye let your children know, saying, Israel came 
over this Jordan on dry land." 

Indeed, the external ordinances of the law — its 
whole typology and symbolism, as well as the written 
Word — were embraced in the comprehensive words 
of Moses, in Deut. vi, 20-25 : " And when thy son 
asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the 
testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments which 
the Lord our God hath commanded you? then thou 
shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen 
in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt 
with a mighty hand, and the Lord showed signs 
and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt and upon 
Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes ; 
and he brought us out from thence that he might 
bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto 
our fathers; and the Lord commanded us to do all 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 301 

these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our 
good always, that lie might preserve us alive as it is 
this Jay. And this shall be our righteousness if we 
observe to do all these commandments before the 
Lord our God as he hath commanded us." 

3. The peculiarity of the foregoing passages is this, 
they recognize a certain age and development of the 
child, sufficient to capacitate it to ask the meaning of 
external ordinances, before it becomes the duty of 
the parent to explain them. Yet they are children. 
Mueh simple truth may have been taught before, but 
now a more advanced stage of pupilage is reached, a 
new phase is added to the system of instruction — 
external ordinances now become the additional helps 
to learning and edification. Thus says the Psalmist, 
u One generation shall praise thy works to another, 
and shall declare thy mighty acts." Ps. cxlv, 4. 
"The father to the children," says Hezekiah, "shall 
make known thy truth." Isa. xxxviii, 19. "Tell ye 
your children of it," says Joel — chap, i, 3 — "and let 
your children tell their children, and then* children 
another generation." Such general repetitions of the 
parental duty include the system of instruction by 
ordinances and public institutions, as well as by sim- 
ple verbal lessons, and by example. In the same 
way Asaph recapitulates the various departments and 
methods of instruction by private lessons and by 
public ordinances, when he says — Ps. lxxviii, 5 — 
"For he established a testimony in Jacob, and ap- 
pointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our 



302 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

fathers that they should make known unto their chil- 
dren." 

4. It was in pursuance of this twofold method and 
plan of instruction, that the Hebrews admitted their 
children to the public participation of the ordinances, 
after they had sufficiently learned their import and his- 
tory. They were instructed in the Law, the Psalms, 
and the Prophets, and if they showed an appreciative 
mind, were admitted to the Passover, the great na- 
tional and religious test of a true Israelite, at the age 
of twelve or thirteen years. At twelve years old our 
Lord attended the Passover with his parents, and 
joined in the solemn temple service. " When a Jew- 
ish boy," says Mr. Frey, "has arrived at the age of 
thirteen years and a day, he is considered a man, fit 
to be one of the ten necessary to constitute a full 
member for public worship." The exact age was not 
determined anciently by an absolute rule; but rather 
by the mental development, the catechetical profi- 
ciency, and the moral appetency of the child. Lender 
the Christian system the same general laws should 
obtain. When the child has been properly instructed, 
can appreciate the great idea of the holy sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper, and gives evidence of sincere 
faith in the Savior and obedience to his command, he 
should be admitted to that public ordinance, and all 
early instruction and discipline should have this in 
view. The period at which a Jewish child was ad- 
mitted to the great annual feasts and the temple wor- 
ship was an epoch in its life, anticipated with devout 



Clll Kill RELATION OF INFANTS. 303 

longing of soul. So should our children learn to 
reverence the house of God, and to aspire to mingle 
in the sacred toasts at Jerusalem, "whither the tribes 
go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimonies 
of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord." 
The worship of God, as contained in institutions and 
ordinances, has a history as well as a doctrinal and 
moral significance. When the child gives evidence 
of that piety of heart which is in sympathy with 
the moral import and end of these institutions, noth- 
ing could incapacitate it for uniting in their solemn 
and edifvins; observance but a want of intelligent 
comprehension of their history, their import and de- 
sign. These should be early and carefully imparted. 
Then, and then only, is the child prepared to par- 
ticipate in these holy mysteries and higher services 
with the public congregation, when it can give an 
intelligent reason for the service, and show evidence 
that its heart is in reverent and devout sympathy 
with its design. The mind early seeks to know the 
reasons of things, and when it distinctly grasps the 
ideas of Church, of covenant relation to God, of the 
moral import of external ordinances, of their simple 
providential history, and their doctrine, it is intellect- 
ually prepared to participate in them. This w T as the 
great principle laid down in the ancient Church, and 
it is too obvious to reason, too coincident to the spirit 
and design of the New Testament Church, to require 
a formal, authoritative republication. The point of 
our argument here is, that at the age of appreciative 



304 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

inquiry the child is to be taught by the historic doc- 
trine and moral significance of public ordinances ; thus 
proving that the child is still under Church culture, 
through the family and parental relation. 



SECTION VII. 

SECOND STAGE OF THE FAMILY CHURCH- LIFE OF CHILDHOOD, 
CONTINUED— DUTIES OF CHUECH OFFICERS AND MEMBERS. 

Argument stated — Proved by Christ's charge to the apostles — To 
Peter personally — Paul's example — John's address to " little chil- 
dren " — Irenaeus — Solomon — David — Influence of Christian oversight 
upon the child — Early practice of the Methodist Episcopal Church — 
John Wesley. 

1. In close connection with the statements of the 
preceding section are to be considered the duties of 
pastors and Church members in regard to children. 
The point to be set forth here is, that it is made the 
duty of public teachers, and of members in the 
Church of Christ, as such, and outside of the family 
relations, to exercise a tender care for children, to 
admit them to the fellowship of saints, and to do for 
them what their" tender years may require in order 
to their spiritual edification as members of Christ's 
mystical body. This claim of childhood upon the 
Church, recognized and established in Holy Scrip- 
ture, and due to them at a period when they are still 
sheltered by paternal care and discipline, is the 
second prominent feature of what we have called 



CIIURCII RELATION OF INFANTS. 305 

the second stage of development in the Church-life 
of childhood. It is thus by gradations that God has 
adapted external social conditions, and helps to piety, 
to the growing wants of the child, till it has ad- 
vanced from the tenderly sheltered family stage, to 
the still sheltered but more openly responsible and 
conventional stage of maturer Church life. 

2. We here recall a few particulars noticed in a 
previous chapter. Some of the passages we are 
about to quote were there cited to prove that chil- 
dren were in a gracious state — a state of acceptance 
with God. We now cite them for another purpose; 
namely, to prove that ministers and Church members 
are directly charged with the spiritual and pastoral 
oversight of children during the period of their fam- 
ily life. We invite special attention to the argument. 

We begin with Christ's example and doctrine. The 

duty of the Church to instruct and look after the 

spiritual interests of children, is charged by Christ 

in his teaching and directions concerning them. In 

Matt, xviii, 5, our Lord says : " Whoso shall receive 

one such little child in my name, receiveth me." 

This is tantamount to a positive command to receive 

them. The converse of the proposition is equally 

true, "Whoso refuseth to receive one such little child 

in my name, refuseth to receive me." A more awful 

warning could not be uttered. In Mark ix, 41, the 

phrase " in my name" is explained to mean, " because 

ye belong to Christ" This proves it to be a spiritual 

and Church act. Luke says — ix, 47, 48 — " Jesus 

26 



306 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

took a child and set him by him, and said, Whoso- 
ever receiveth this child in my name, receiveth me." 
Mark says of the same transaction — ix, 36, 37 — 
" Jesus took a child, and when he had taken him in 
his arms, he said, Whosoever shall receive one of such 
children in my name, receiveth me." Now, that this 
" receiving in Christ's name" is an act at once of 
Christian recognition and Church fellowship, is abund- 
antly proved from the use of the word throughout 
the New Testament; that it applies to little children, 
such as one might hold in the arms, is equally proved. 
Here, then, we settle one point — the Church is com- 
manded, under the most awful sanction of Christian 
rewards, and implied Divine malediction in case of 
neglect, to recognize and admit to fellowship little 
children, and, by necessary inference, to do for them 
all and whatsoever their case requires to be done as 
members of the mystic body of Christ. 

3. The same duty is implied in the warning not to 
" offend" or " despise" little children. In Matt, xviii, 
6, the Savior says — still addressing the apostles on 
the common duty of the Church and Church mem- 
bers — "But whoso shall offend one of these little 
ones which believe in me, it were better for him that 
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he 
were drowned in the depth of the sea." And in 
verse 10 he says : " Take heed that ye despise not 
one of these little ones." The word translated despise 
means not only to contemn, but also to slight, to 
neglect. Dr. Whitby has shrewdly hit the point of our 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 307 

Lord's greatest anxiety in the case, the point around 
which he aimed to throw up the greatest guards of 

warning: namely, the and indifference of 

Church members a< to the moral effect of their treat- 
ment of the children : " Take heed that ye despise not 
one of these little ones, as not regarding whether ye 
/ them or not." What is all this but a most 
solemn warning to the Church, to its officers and 
members, to receive as a legitimate part of Christ's 
flock, family, community, or Church, the little chil- 
dren, and to so adapt Church influences, public and 
private instruction, as that these little ones shall be 
preserved and trained up in the ways of the Lord. 
Beware you do not "offend" them, turn them out 
of the way; beware you do not "despise'' them, treat 
them with carelessness and neglect; such negative 
warnings imply and carry with them all the force of 
the opposite, positive precept; namely, "receive" 
them, and fulfill to them all the Christian offices due 
to their relation to Christ's family, and to their tender 
age. Blessed Jesus ! Has thy Church remembered 
thy earnest words ? 

4. Somewhat later in our Lord's life occurred the 
ever-memorable example of his tender regard for chil- 
dren, when "he took them up in his arms, put his 
hands upon them, and blessed them, and said, Suffer 
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not ; for of such is the kingdom of heaven/' The 
power of these words, and of this Divine example of 
tenderest beneficence and sympathy, will be felt to 



308 THE EELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the latest ages of our race. Christ is the children's 
advocate, friend, and Savior, and as such they famil- 
iarly recognized and saluted him. But the special 
point to be noticed here as affecting our present ar- 
gument is, that what he did and said on this occasion 
was for the official instruction of his apostles and of 
all his ministers. It was the apostles whom he was 
addressing, reproving them for their opposition to the 
rights and claims of little children to come to him. 
What he says of little children's coming to him was 
in behalf of all children, as such, not merely of those 
then brought to him. As, also, what he affirms of 
little children — namely, that " of such is the kingdom 
of heaven" — is affirmed of them universally as chil- 
dren, in all generations of the world. Here, then, 
the chief ministers and planters of the Christian 
Church, representing that Church for all ages to come, 
are publicly instructed in regard to one class of its 
members, and the command to " suffer and forbid 
them not to come," is a command to bring, and en- 
courage parents to bring them, to Christ. 

5. In John xxi, 15-17, is recorded one of the 
last commands of the Savior to the apostle Peter, 
and, through him as a representative, to the other 
apostles and to the whole Church. Tin-ice he asked 
Peter, " Lovest thou me?" Thrice Peter answers 
affirmatively, and thrice the Savior commands him 
respecting the flock which he was to intrust to his 
and their care. The occasion was solemn and im- 
pressive; and now mark the order and import of the 



QHUEGH RELATION" OF INFANTS. 

Savior's commands. First. >n 'Feed 

I M — my lit u the original 

I means. Secondly, 1 -Take care o 

T : den (tea not merely to 

■\" as the common English reads, but (ah 

that is, to do all for the flock that it re- 
quired, whether it were in the way of feeding, or 
. or nursing, or g : — all 

that is comprehended in fending the flock. Thirdly, 
the Savior says, "Feed my sheep." Here is the 
proper word for feed, and different from the preceding 
word tend. Now, if we look at the natural proprie- 
ties and probabilities of the case, does not the first 
care of a shepherd turn toward the young and tender 
of the flock ? And in consigning the charge of his 
flock to an under-shepherd, would it not be natural 
to commend to his special vigilance and care, the 
lambs, as being more tender, more exposed to injury, 
more in need of care ? And after such teaching and 
example, such sympathy and care for children, as the 
life of the Great Shepherd had evidenced, would it 
not be natural to suppose that now, in leaving his 
Church to the care of under-shepherds. and in giving 
them charge concerning it. he should enumerate all 
classes, the adults and the children, the '•sheep''' and 
the "lambs? 93 Xay, more, would he not be likely to 
mention the "lambs" first? Is not this the truest 
working of the truest shepherd's heart ? And how 
like the u g Shepherd, the Shepherd and Bit 

ills," do these instructions of Christ to his apos- 



310 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

ties appear ! That children are here denoted by 
"lamhs" is so consonant to all the antecedents of the 
Savior's ministry, so natural to the imagery in an 
enumeration of the two classes of a flock, lambs and 
sheep, so suitable to the occasion; and, on the other 
hand, the supposition that he should leave children 
out of such an enumeration is so inconsistent and im- 
probable, that we may assume it as fairly undis- 
putable that little children are here denoted by lambs. 
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall 
gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in 
his bosom, and shall gently lead the nursing ewes." 
Isa. xl, 11. This care of the tender young is so 
shepherd-like, that without it the analogy and the 
metaphor would totally fail. 

This command of the Savior, then, is another in- 
stance where public teachers and pastors of the 
Church are charged officially with the instruction of 
children, and it being during their tender age, and 
while they are yet under parental care, the efforts of 
the parent and the Church officer concurring, proves 
that the first stage of the Church life of the child is 
developed in the family. 

6. The example is constantly set us in Holy Writ 
of prophets and apostles addressing themselves to 
children, and interesting themselves specially in their 
instruction and Church training. When Paul says to 
children, " Obey your parents in the Lord," he speaks 
to them directly as both children and as being part 
of the spiritual care lodged in his hands as the pastor 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 311 

of the flock. So. also, his command to parents to 
"bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the 
Lord," is a direct official interference as a minister 
of Christ, in behalf of the little children. These com- 
mands were part of that Church discipline and cove- 
nant duty which rested upon both parents and chil- 
dren, and is most conclusively an interference of 
Church authority for the religious order of the family, 
and the proper nurture of the earlier stages of Church- 
life in the child. 

7. In 1 John ii, 12, 13, the beloved apostle thus 
addresses little children, in connection with all the 
grades of age among the Church members : " I write 
unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven 
you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, 
because ye have known him from the beginning. I 
write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome 
the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, 
because ye have known the Father." That this gra- 
dation of classes is founded on the natural age, is 
evident, both from the appellations used, and from 
the descriptions of character given. That the terms 
"fathers" and " young men" are to be taken literally, 
as distinctive of natural age, no one doubts. Why, 
then, should the term "little children" be taken meta- 
phorically? It can not be done without violence to 
the laws of language. Then, also, the descriptions of 
character are different. The "fathers" had known 
Christ "from the beginning" of the promulgation of 
the Gospel — then about sixty years. The young men 



312 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

were " strong," and had " overcome the wicked one," 
the " little children" simply "knew the Father," and 
"their sins were forgiven." Beautiful simplicity of 
faith and experience! A child under ten years, and 
often of five or six, could know this, as did Samuel, 
and Timothy, and Polycarp, and myriads of others. 
But the words nmdtov and rexpeov, though translated 
"little children" alike in both verses, are seen to be 
two different terms ; and though the words simply and 
apart from all circumstances would not require any 
distinction as to age to be marked by a translation, 
yet when we consider, first, that to suppose they 
denote one and the same class of Church members, 
the apostle is made to deal in the simplest and most 
unmeaning tautology; and, secondly, that he gives 
each a separate and distinct description of experience, 
which indicates a difference of age, we seem required 
by the principles of just interpretation to understand 
them as denoting distinct classes; that is, classes, 
though both very young, yet distinguished by age and 
advancement. The rexuca, " little children" of verse 
12, simply had "their sins forgiven for his name's 
sake." They were as "new-born babes" in Christ, 
without any experience but the simplest experience of 
their "first love." But the xcudta, "little children" 
of verse 13, had "Tcnoivn the Father" It does not 
say how long they had known the Father; certainly 
not "from the beginning," as the "fathers" or old 
men had, but for some little time. They had some 
historic experience beyond their first love. In the 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 313 

14th Terse the apostle contents himself with recapit- 
ulating the "fathers" and the "young men," not 
mentioning again the "children," as, having noticed 
them once categorically, their age did not seem to 
require that any thing further should be said to them 
by name in the drift of such a discourse as he was 
then giving to the Church. And this distinction of 
different ages is in perfect keeping with Jewish divi- 
sions of human life. In Jewish phrase an infant was 
under three years of age, a child from three to twelve, 
a youth from twelve to twenty, a man from twenty 
and upward. This enumeration of the beloved apos- 
tle reminds us of a similar one by Irenaeus, Bishop 
of Lyons, who flourished about seventy years after 
the apostle. He was the intimate companion of Poly- 
carp, who was John's disciple, and through him be- 
came familiar with the personal history of that apostle. 
Iremeus says : " Christ came to save all persons by 
himself; all, I say, who by him are regenerated to 
God ; infants, and little ones, and children, and youth, 
and elder persons." One is led to suspect that the 
Bishop borrowed from the apostle. Both speak of 
little children, but the apostle addresses them as 
part of the Church. Here, then, were grades of mem- 
bership from infancy to old age; grades of age from 
three to twelve, and from twelve to twenty, spe- 
cially marked and publicly addressed by the apostle. 
Observe, too, that this Epistle of John was "gen- 
eral" — not addressed to one local Church, but to the 

universal, catholic, Christian Church. This proves 

27 



314 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

that the distinctions, here noted as to ages and classes, 
were not local and exceptional, but universal through- 
out the Church; and the great influence which John's 
writings had in the Churches, and the open, confident 
tone of his address, not only prove that these distinc- 
tions were well understood at the time, but must have 
had a powerful influence to sanction and encourage 
childhood Church relations. 

8. Solomon, the wise teacher, often addressed the 
young, and even the children. " Hear," said he, " ye 
children, the instructions of a father, and attend to 
know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, 
forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, 
tender, and only beloved in the sight of my mother. 
He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thy heart 
retain my words." Prov. iv, 4. Can these tender al- 
lusions to paternal affection and counsel be mistaken? 
They are reminiscences of early childhood, and he is 
speaking to children who are yet blessed, as he had 
been blessed, with the tender love of the mother and 
the early counsels of a father. It is the king, the 
philosopher, the pious teacher, recognizing the rights 
and claims and necessities of the early life. Nor is 
it inconsistent to suppose David addressing children 
proper, when he says : " Come, ye children, hearken 
unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord." 
Ps. xxxiv, 11. Why should we not suppose children 
are meant in such addresses, where nothing in the 
connection contradicts it? 

9. Thus it appears that the Church, as a covenant 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 315 

body, with its public teachers and ordinances, is to 
cooperate with parents to train up the children, at a 
period too early, and an age too tender, to allow them 
to engage, upon a personal profession and responsibil- 
ity, in the public Church service. But this twofold 
agency of Church and family is to be employed to pre- 
pare them for full Church privilege, when their first 
stage of Church life under the family shelter is passed, 
and they are of age to be classed among the temple 
worshipers. 

We can not conclude this section without urging 
upon pastors and Church members this most import- 
ant duty. It is not expected of them that they will 
officiously interfere with the internal affairs of other 
households, but in all well-disposed communities and 
families there are interchanges of Christian offices 
toward children which may be given without offense 
and with great profit. A kindly word of encourage- 
ment to a child of another family, a plain conversa- 
tion in love upon personal religion, a few questions 
for instruction, a recognition, perhaps an admoni- 
tion or caution, will have a powerful influence in 
giving sanction to parental training and home culture. 
These evidences of religious oversight and care have 
another effect upon the child's mind; they suggest to 
the child that he has in some sort a public reputation 
to maintain, that he is an object of interest outside 
the home circle, that he has friends abroad, that 
friendly eyes are upon him and friendly hearts yearn 
over him, and that the Church is his best friend 



316 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

beyond the precincts of home. These thoughts will 
have a tendency to check and restrain sinful inclina- 
tions, to give him a sense of reputation, an impression 
of the value of character, a respect for Christian in- 
stitutions and Christian profession, and to strengthen 
the good principles of his heart and the promptings 
of his conscience. Christian people never know the 
value to children of cultivating their confidence and 
esteem, and using that favorable sentiment for their 
religious edifying. These duties can not be finished 
and dismissed in formal routine of Sabbath school 
labor, or on set occasions. They are the daily and 
constant care of the Church, to be performed as mo- 
ments of opportunity occur, in the family or social 
circle, in the rounds of business, upon the highway, 
or in social worship. 

The Methodist Episcopal Church, from her first 
organization in 1784, has constantly asked the ques- 
tion of all her ministers, when brought up for admis- 
sion to the pastoral ministry, "Will you diligently 
instruct the children in every place?" This is among 
the solemn interrogations made at the door of ad- 
mission to the pastoral office. Long before the date 
of her Church organization, her preachers, then under 
Mr. Wesley's directions in all things, carried out his 
instructions to them in regard to children, to con- 
verse with and teach them from house to house, and 
faithfully to catechise them on fundamental points of 
doctrine. Many years before Robert Raikes inau- 
gurated the modern system of Sunday schools, by his 



CHURCH RELATION OF INFANTS. 317 

humane efforts in behalf of the wretched children of 
Gloucester — 1781 — .John Wesley had had a vigorous 
scheme of religious instruction, specially appropriated 
to children, throughout his societies in England and 
America, and his preachers were drilled to this im- 
portant work. His older "Minutes of Conferences" 
contain the germs and outline of a comprehensive sys- 
tem, and show how deeply and Scripturally he saw 
into the true method of reforming the world. 



_ 



318 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER YI, 

DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 

Human responsibility — Three principles laid down — Time for be- 
ginning religious teaching — Isa. xxviii, 9 — Ps. viii, 2 — Eph. vi, 4 — 
Pirst effect of infant instruction — Force of the phrase "bringing 
up" — Greatness of the work — Prevenient grace — Religious suscepti- 
bility of childhood — Can the child grow up without forfeiting infantile 
justification? — Religious capacity of children — De Quincey — Simplic- 
ity of faith suited to childhood — Of prayer — Of religious experience — 
Early Christians — St. Basil — Case of irreligious children, who are 
religiously brought up, considered — The covenant to be trusted — Ex- 
ample of Hebrew nation trusting the covenant — 18th of Ezekiel — 
David's dying song. 

1. We proceed now to speak of the time of be- 
ginning, and the efficacy of an early and faithful use 
of the appointed means for the salvation of responsi- 
ble childhood. Responsibility is a plant of slow 
growth, and is susceptible of advancement or retard- 
ation almost indefinitely. It is the joint product of 
the growth of the moral and intellective powers, con- 
sidered in connection with providential dispensations, 
and its earliest manifestation is always in the least 
perceptible degree. It should be the first object of 
all instruction and discipline to develop in the child a 
just sense of accountability to God, and to parents 
as the Divinely appointed sponsors and guardians of 
the juvenile mind. In the process of our discussion 



* DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 310 

under this head we shall recognize the following 
principles : 

First. The unconditional grace of the atonement 
bestowed upon infancy remains in force till the 
child comes under a new condition of moral life — the 
condition of responsibility. 

Secondly. The law of responsibility in the creature, 
in so far as it obtains, modifies the Divine administra- 
tion ; the bestowment or continuance of saving grace 
in such a case, and all measures of increase of such 
grace, being secured thereafter only by a right exer- 
cise of the responsible powers. 

Thirdly. There is no stage of human responsibility 
in which a state of present salvation and acceptance 
with God may not be actually possessed, and the 
realization of this state by the child — where it does 
exist — will be in proportion to its intelligent conscious- 
ness and right instruction. 

We have noticed heretofore that children are to be 
cared for and nurtured not only by parents, as being 
in covenant with God, but by the Church; not only 
taught by the word, but by public religious ordi- 
nances. The appliances for training a child up in the 
Church and for the Church are, -parental care and 
instruction, pastoral teaching and admonition, Church 
sympathy and influence, and the public ordinances of 
religion. These have been brought to light in the 
preceding argument. We now turn our attention to 
the time of commencing these earnest religious and 
Church instructions. 



820 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

We have already stated that the various commands 
to instruct children are intended to take effect at the 
earliest manifestations of perceptive consciousness, 
«nd the child is to be taught the different truths, and 
the different ordinances of religion, according to its 
progressive power of reason. But there are Scrip- 
tures which indicate so clearly the age at which this 
specific Church training should commence, that the 
point deserves a special notice here. Not that any 
absolute time can be fixed for such beginning, but a 
general date has been so often hinted in Scripture, at 
which the public responsibility of the Church and of 
parents is recognized, that it is important to con- 
sider it. 

2. We may fairly assume that the ancient Church 
law on this subject was referred to, if not formally 
laid down, by Isaiah, chap, xxviii, 9 : " Whom shall 
he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to 
understand doctrine? They that are weaned from 
the milk and drawn from the breasts" And that 
the period for Church instruction is here indicated 
is further proved by the verse following, wherein the 
characteristic method of teaching little children by 
repeating the same thing over and over again is 
mentioned; "for," says the prophet, "precept must 
be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon 
line, line upon line; here a little and there a little." 
This is the process with children. And in the very 
next verse the same method of teaching is again re- 
ferred to; namely, the teaching "with a stammering 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 321 

tongue? that is, with a syllable or a sentence at a 
time, and, as to orthoepy, with imperfect and hesi- 
tant enunciation, just as foreigners would attempt to 
speak a strange dialect, or as a nurse would teach 
a child to talk by frequent repetitions of sound, and 
simple, imitative articulations. This the Hebrew word 
y^ — togehg — translated stammering in verse 11, in- 
dicates. Bishop Lowth supposes the scoffing Israel- 
ites to retort upon the prophet in verses 9 and 10, 
as if they would say: "What! doth he treat us as 
mere infants just weaned? Doth he teach us as 
little children, perpetually inculcating the same ele- 
mentary lessons, the mere rudiments of knowledge; 
precept after precept, line after line, here and there, 
by little and little?"' But whether we regard them 
as the words of the prophet, complaining to the 
people of the child-like manner in which he was 
forced to teach them on account of their stupidity 
and inaptness — as Paul afterward complained of his 
Hebrew brethren, "For when for the time ye ought 
to teach others, ye have need that one teach you 
again the first principles," etc., Heb. v, 12-14 — 
or as the words of the unbelieving scoffers, who 
ridiculed the prophet's earnest, simple, and faithful 
manner of inculcating truth; in either case the argU- 
ment is the same as it affects the point in question. 
In either case the historical allusion, which is the 
ground-work of the whole passage, is to the well- 
known custom of commencing early with children — 
as early as they were "drawn from the breasts" — 



322 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

as early as they could learn truth by simple, oft- 
repeated utterances, and of "teaching them knowl- 
edge," and making them to " understand doctrine," 
by "little and little," by repeating "line after line." 
The note of Dr. A. Clarke on Deut. vi, 7, would 
seem to imply that Moses had in his mind the same 
tender age of childhood at which this teaching should 
be begun and prosecuted, requiring the same process 
of frequent iteration. " Thou shalt teach them dili- 
gently — shinnantam, from shanan, to repeat, iterate, 
or do a thing again and again; hence, to ivhet or 
sharpen any instrument, which is done by reiterated 
friction or grinding." This is the method of re- 
ligious instruction prescribed by the law of Moses. 
The same word, the same lesson, is to be repeated 
again and again, that by repetition the memory and 
understanding may be fully impressed. The basis 
of the comparison rests on these two grounds : the 
time of infantile instruction, namely, when "weaned 
from the breasts;" and the method of it, namely, 
"line upon line, here a little and there a little," etc. 
Now, it is the date to which attention is here called. 
As early as the child was weaned it was the subject 
of special and ever-reiterated religious instruction. 
The "line upon line" process was then commenced. 
A specialty, therefore, attached to the efforts put 
forth to prepare it for its destined public Church 
relations. Can any thing be more true to life, more 
affecting and admonitory, than these descriptions of 
infantile instruction ? 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 323 

And as the prophet thus fixes the time for special 
instruction at the period of weaning — "those that be 
Weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts," 
Bays he — it should be further observed that the 
Hebrew mother nursed her child three years. The 
mother of the seven noble young martyrs who fell 
under the tortures of the tyrant Antiochus, besought 
her last son not to shrink from the terrors of death 
for his religion, but to be courageous. " 0, my son," 
said she, "have pity upon me that bare thee, and 
ij'U-r thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and 
brought thee up unto this age, and endured the 
troubles of education. . . . Fear not this tormentor; 
but, being worthy of thy brethren, take thy death 
that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy 
brethren." 2 Mac. vii, 27, 29. We quote this to 
show the period of infancy, and the early date and 
earnest tone of Hebrew education. But although the 
nursing terminated at three years, yet "the sows," 
says Professor Jahn, "remained till the fifth year in 
the care of the women ; they then came into the 
father's hands, and were taught not only the arts and 
duties of life, but were instructed in the Mosaic law, 
and in all parts of their country's religion." 

Mr. Wesley urges : " Instruct your children early, 
plainly, frequently, and patiently. Instruct them early, 
from the first hour that you perceive reason begins to 
dawn. Truth may then begin to shine upon the mind 
far earlier than we are apt to suppose. And whoever 
watches the first openings of the understanding may, 



324 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

by little and little, supply fit matter for it to work 
upon, and may turn the eye of the soul toward good 
things as well as toward bad or trifling ones. When- 
ever a child begins to speak, you may be assured 
reason begins to work. I know of no cause why a 
parent should not just then begin to speak of the 
best things, the things of God; and from that time 
no opportunity should be lost of instilling all truths 
as they are capable of receiving." Again he says : 
"In this plain and familiar way a wise parent might, 
many times in a day, say something of God, particu- 
larly insisting, 'He made you; and he made you to 
be happy in him; and nothing else can make you 
happy.' We can not press this too soon. If you 
say, 'Nay, but they can not understand you when 
they are so young,' I answer, No, nor when they are 
fifty years old, unless God opens their understanding. 
And can he not do this at any age?" 

3. The age for teaching children, and the efficacy 
of that early training, are aptly brought out in the 
prophecy, recorded Ps. viii, 2 : " Out of the mouth 
of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength 
[established praise'] because of thine enemies, that 
thou mightest still [mightest restrain, cause to desist] 
the enemy and the avenger." The general sense of 
this prophetic declaration is obvious enough. God, 
whose glory is above the heavens, who made the 
visible heavens, the moon and the stars, this great 
and glorious God will put his enemies to silence by 
the praises which he will establish upon infant lips. 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 325 

The moral of the passage is tantamount to the dec- 
laration, "God hath chosen the weak things of the 
world to confound the mighty ." 1 Cor. i, 27. But 
the point which concerns us is the literal involve- 
ment, in the fulfillment of this prophecy, of infantile 
instruction in the things of God, the liberal enlight- 
enment of early childhood, so that the praises of 
God shall be permanently established — so the word 
indicates — upon the lips of infancy. If there is no 
literality in these predicted praises of childhood there 
is no meaning to the passage — it is but an utterance 
of blind rhapsody. But if there is a literality to the 
prediction, if a great and glorious truth lies here, 
then all that we plead for is established, and it shall 
yet be a distinguishing glory of Messiah's kingdom 
that 

" Infant voices shall proclaim 
Their early blessings on his name." 

But we are not left to inferential reasoning to es- 
tablish this point. The Savior of mankind and the 
Advocate and Defender of the rights of children, has 
forever settled it. Toward the close of his ministry 
an incident occurred, ever memorable and precious in 
the annals of fulfilled prophecy and Church history, 
which relieves this remarkable passage from the 
Psalms from all ambiguity and doubt. The Savior 
had entered Jerusalem meekly, yet in the triumph of 
a conqueror ; he had purged the Temple ; he had 
cured the lame and the blind, when a scene presented 
itself as offensive to the proud Pharisee as it was 



326 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

grateful to the soul of the meek Lamb of God. Chil- 
dren, evidently in large numbers, appeared in the 
Temple, and recognizing their Friend and Savior, 
spontaneously praised him, "crying and saying, Ho- 
sanna to the Son of David !" The " chief-priests 
and scribes " were " sore displeased, and said unto him, 
Hearest thou what these say ? And Jesus saith unto 
them, Yea ; have ye never read, Out of the mouths of 
babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise T' 
Matt, xxi, 15, 16. The answer of Christ shows that 
these children were of very tender age, undoubtedly 
below the common age for temple worship. From 
2 Chron. xxxi, 16, it appears that male children of 
the Levites entered the house of the Lord at " three 
years," or after weaning. This admission of the 
male children of the Levites at so tender an age was 
especially practiced at times when the Levites re- 
ceived their distribution of the tithes, and it would 
seem to have been practiced as a sort of polling of the 
families, each member having a claim. This circum- 
stance is sufficient to account for this number of chil- 
dren in the Temple at this time — an occurrence other- 
wise altogether unusual. 

But mark the fulfillment of the prophecy, "Out of 
the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected 
praise!" It was a prediction of Gospel days, a dis- 
tinguishing glory of the age of Messiah. That was 
to be the bright day of the Church, when its enemies 
were to be confounded, restrained, and put to silence, 
not so much by the power of logic, as by the praises 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 327 

of infant lips; when earliest childhood should be so 
enlightened and sanctified that praise should not be 
fitful, and fickle, and evanescent, but be established, 
be founded, as the prediction means, upon their pure 
and infant lips. And it was most fit that in Christ's 
day and ministry this prophecy should be renewed, its 
literalness explained, and its first-fruits of fulfillment 
reaped. But do not these events shed a light upon 
the conventional obligation of Church members toward 
the children? Is there no instrumentality to be em- 
ployed in the accomplishment of this glorious victory 
of Christianity against infidelity? Is "the enemy 
and the avenger " to be silenced, and the Church have 
nothing to do ? Is earliest infancy to be instructed 
and "established" in the praises of God, so that infi- 
delity shall be supplanted, defeated, and put to silence, 
and the Church have no responsible instrumentality 
therein? Remember, it was children in the Temple, 
children publicly praising Christ, children in covenant 
with God, children early taught and early impressed, 
whose example thus fulfilled the spirit of that ancient 
prophecy, and recalled the Savior's mind to it. 
" They that be planted in the house of the Lord, 
shall flourish in the courts of our God." Psa. xcii, 
13. It is this Church planting and Church culture 
which bring the early fruit, and the fruit which shall 
remain. Childhood has yet a destiny to reach and a 
glorious work to perform for the Savior in the re- 
generation of the world. But this is not the work of 
one generation. When childhood shall be able to 



328 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

trace a pious ancestry back through many genera- 
tions, and when this shall become general, then will 
the earth begin to show signs of return, morally, to 
its Eden-like state. 

4. But this same truth is taught by all those pre- 
cepts which require of the parent the early and con- 
tinued training of the child. Take, for example, 
Eph. vi, 4 : "Ye parents, bring them up in the nur- 
ture and admonition of the Lord." The question is, 
At what age of the child does this parental duty take 
effect ? When is the parent to begin ? It should be 
considered that the first effect of infantile instruction 
is to lodge in the memory the forms of truth, and 
form in the life the habits of religion. It is thus that 
what may be called the mechanical powers and prin- 
ciples of action in our nature are to be trained be- 
fore the reasoning faculty and the moral sense are 
sufficiently developed to become our guide. What is 
thus committed to the memory will become material 
for the simpler offices of judgment, and afterward for 
the reflective reason and conscience ; and what is at 
first mechanically formed in the habit of life will 
come to receive the sanction of developing intelligence 
as the approved path of duty. But the moment of 
commencing this religious training is the moment for 
it to take effect according to the capacity and wants 
of the child. This is obvious from the tenor of the 
precept. At first it has little relation to the intelli- 
gent comprehension of the child ; but as reason and 
a sense of obligation develop, the provisions of grace 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 329 

meet the case, and arc sufficient to make the child 
u wise unto salvation." This we must suppose, or 
else assume the opposite; namely, that, owing to cer- 
tain conditions of our nature in childhood, there are 
times when present salvation and acceptance with 
God become an impossibility — times when grace can 
not reach to countervail and correct the wayward tend- 
encies of our nature. Truth lodged in the mind, 
and habits carefully formed in the life, according to 
the age and capacity of the child, may, therefore — 
we speak of the simple possibilities of the case — be- 
come thus effective at the first moment of responsible 
action ; and if so, by parity of reasoning, at any suc- 
cessive moment up to mature years ; always assum- 
ing that saving grace to the child, as to the adult, is 
according to the religious use of its measure of re- 
sponsibility. This command, therefore, to "bring 
them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," 
is a command to begin with them at the earliest mo- 
ment that they are susceptible of this nacdeca xal 
voudzcia z'jpiou — training and instruction of the 
Lord—and to continue it thereafter without intermis- 
sion. Both the date and terminus of this duty and 
labor of religious "bringing up" are clearly marked 
by the terms of the command. The word exTpsipeze — 
bring them up, train them up, educate, nourish them — 
as a precept, covers all the period of childhood, or 
minority, not exempting one day or hour. Its sense 
is more fully brought out in its Septuagint use, and 

the corresponding Hebrew word 773, gadal — to grow, 

28 






330 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

nourish, bring up. See such passages as Gen. xxxviii, 
14; 1 Kings xii, 8; Job xxxviii, 18; 2 Kings x, 6; 
Isa. i, 2 ; and xxxiii, 4 ; and xlix, 21 ; and li, 18 ; 
Hos. ixj 12. We offer this simply as an illustration 
of the entire code of precepts, both in the Old and 
New Testaments, covering this branch of parental 
duty. And so we would understand Prov. xxii, 6 : 
"Train, initiate, dedicate a child at the entrance of his 
path." The obligation of the command, "Thou shalt 
teach thy children diligently," etc., dates at the 
earliest susceptibility of instruction in the child, and 
terminates only at the point where the mature re- 
sponsibility of the child supersedes parental control; 
and through all the intermediate points of this period 
this instruction is appointed as the instrument of 
saving grace to the child. Let not the parent shrink 
back in discouragement at the prospect of so great 
and difficult and continued labor. The promise of 
grace to parent and child runs parallel to the precept 
throughout. "Never leave off, never intermit your 
labor of love," says Wesley, " till you see the fruit of 
it. . . . And suppose after you have done this, 
after you have taught your children from their early 
infancy in the plainest manner you could, omitting no 
opportunity, and persevering therein, you did not 
presently see any fruit of your labor, you must not 
conclude that there will be none. Possibly the bread 
which you have cast upon the waters may be found 
again after many days ; the seed which has long re- 
mained in the ground may at length spring up into a 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 331 

plentiful harvest." " The will of a parent," he says, 
"is to a little child in the place of the will of God. 
Therefore studiously teach them to submit to this 
while they are children, that they may be ready to 
submit to his will when they are men. But in order 
to carry this point you will need incredible firmness 
and resolution ; for after you have once begun, you 
must never more give way. You must hold on still 
in an even course ; you must never intermit your at- 
tention for one hour ; otherwise you will lose your 
labor." 

5. The child does not grow up religious by a law 
of natural development. The elements of religion 
are not in his nature, needing only education, and 
right social influences, to bring them forth to ripe- 
ness. Religious instruction and discipline do not rest 
upon the aptitudes of nature for their promise of 
success, but upon grace antecedently bestowed. Pre- 
venient grace is a fundamental truth, never to be set 
aside as a condition of successful instrumentality 
either in the adult or child. In the child, prior to 
accountability, all prevenient grace is saving grace; 
in the adult, prior to regeneration, it is assisting 
grace. This saving grace in the child, as in the 
adult, never increases but by use, and use implies 
accountability. It is like the life of a seed as distin- 
guished from the life of a plant. The enveloped life 
of the unplanted seed retains only its normal condi- 
tion, but the developed life of the planted seed ex- 
pands through new, and beautiful, and progressive 






332 



THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 



forms of existence. " The kingdom of heaven is like 
a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed 
in his field." Mark the two points of the analogy: 
1. A "seed," possessing a principle of life; 2. A 
genial condition, " which a man took and sowed in his 
field." The similitude would utterly fail if this latter 
circumstance were wanting. It is not the "seed" 
merely, but the seed " sown," the seed brought into 
congenial contact with external nature, suited to its 
germination and growth, which illustrates the life, 
growth, and perfection of the kingdom of God. 
"For so is the kingdom of God, as if a man should 
cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise 
night and day, and the seed should spring and grow 
up, he knew not how. For the earth bringeth forth 
of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the 
full corn in the ear." Beautiful similitude ! "I have 

PLANTED, ApolloS WATERED, but God gave the IN- 
CREASE." Changing the conditions of the metaphor 
somewhat, Peter says : " As new-born babes desire 
the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow 
thereby." If the grace of infancy never comes forth 
to maturity, let the Church and the parent, to whom 
belong the planting, the watering, and the pruning, 
well consider it. God gives no "increase" but ac- 
cording to established laws. " They that are planted 
in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts 
of our God." The one talent never increased, be- 
cause never used. 

6. On the metaphysics, or mere abstract possibil- 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 333 

ities of the question, whether a child can grow up in 
a justified state, without ever forfeiting its infantile 
state of grace, we have not hitherto proposed to 
enter, considering the question in that form more cu- 
rious than wise, more speculative than practical. 
Mere hypotheses, or speculations not involving solid 
practical results, nor forced on us by any Scripture 
doctrine, we avoid. Standing on the immutable dec- 
laration of Christ, we say: "Except [r«c] any person 
be born again — born [_ix nvevfidTos] by the Spirit — he 
can not enter into the kingdom of God." And, stand- 
ing on the ground laid down in this argument, every 
where recognized in Scripture, we say that this grace, 
denoted by regeneration, justification, life, member- 
ship in the kingdom of heaven, is available to our 
humanity, according to its wants and capacity, at 
every period of its existence. " Who," says Hoff- 
man, " can say how early the first dawning rays 
which precede the morning light of the spiritual day, 
enter the infant soul?" "With what age or year," 
says Stier, " does the susceptibility to receive the 
Holy Ghost begin? or, to put the same question in 
another way, Who that honors the word of Scripture 
can unconditionally deny to childhood this suscepti- 
bility, after Luke i, 15? or, still otherwise, Did not 
the sacred youth of Jesus, holy from the beginning 
in the Spirit, obtain a sanctification for human nature 
in its earliest age?" Yea, we put the argument in 
still stronger light, and say, if any one period of our 
life is more susceptible of grace than another, it is 



l 



334 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

that of childhood; and if the faithful use of religious 
instrumentality has greater promise of success at one 
period than another, it is that of our earlier con- 
sciousness. The child may sin and repent without 
any greater forfeiture of its antecedent, unconditional 
justification, than the adult believer incurs who is 
"overtaken with a fault" and is "restored." Sin 
and grace in such instances are both in proportion 
only to the moral development of the child. The 
parent, in laying down the obligation of repentance 
to the child, is not required to go back of its per- 
sonal consciousness. It should, indeed, be taught to 
confess the sinfulness of its nature, like David, who, 
says Calvin, " commences the confession of his de- 
pravity at the time of his conception." Psa. li, 5. 
It should so confess, because this fallen nature is the 
perpetual occasion of departing from God, and in 
itself offensive to his holiness, and in yielding to it 
we seem to adopt and approve it, and thus make it, 
in a sense, our personal offense. Yet, as Jeremy 
Taylor says, "No Church did ever enjoin to any cat- 
echumen any penance, or repentance, for original 
sin." We do not affirm, therefore, that the child 
may, much less that any child ever actually did, grow 
up without forfeiting, at any time, its infantile justi- 
fication in Christ. We would not affirm such con- 
tinued sinlessness to be a fact in the case of adult 
believers. Our argument does not require it. In 
reasoning on these subjects men must beware of the 
opposite extremes of affirming too much for human 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 335 

nature, on tlic one hand, so as to contradict the facts 
of human experience; or too little of Divine grace, on 
the other, so as to contradict the doctrines of redemp- 
tion. We must not make sin to be a necessity, at 
any stage of human life; this would be to make it 
no sin; nor must we, on the other hand, at any time, 
exalt human nature above the constant liability to 
sin. Equally absurd is it to suppose that, either in 
children or adults, a sin which is aside from the tenor 
and aim of the life, and promptly confessed and re- 
pented of, argues against a prior state of grace, or 
an immediate, effectual restoration. The learned 
Witsius, an oracle of Calvinistic orthodoxy, two 
hundred years ago, was bold to affirm that children 
might grow up in continued favor with God. " It often 
happens," he says, " that this principle of spiritual life, 
which had discovered its activity in the most tender 
childhood, according to, and sometimes above the age 
of the person, grows up by degrees with the person, 
after the example of our Lord, who 'increased in 
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man,' 
and of John the Baptist, who 'grew and waxed 
strong in spirit.' Such persons make continual pro- 
gress in the way of sanctification, and grow insensi- 
bly into a 'perfect man,' unto the measure of the 
stature of the fullness of Christ. We have an 
illustrious example of this in Timothy," etc. Again 
he says : " But it would be very wrong to require 
these who, being regenerated in their infancy, have 
grown up all along with the quickening spirit, to 



336 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

declare the time and manner of their passage from 
death to life. It is sufficient if they can comfort 
themselves and edify others with the sincere fruits of 
regeneration, and the constant tenor of a pious life." 
These statements, in the frank and confident tone in 
which they are advanced, indicate that they were not 
at variance with the current sentiments of the age. 
"Many parents," says Mr. Wesley, "presently see 
the fruit of the seed they have sown, and have the 
comfort of observing that their children grow in 
grace in the same proportion as they grow in years." 
This was spoken of earlier childhood. 

We see no impropriety in holding, nay, we see not 
how it is possible to deny, that wherever children do 
depart from Christian duty and morals, having intelli- 
gent consciousness of the fact, they may be so ad- 
monished, instructed, and encouraged to repent, pray, 
and believe for forgiveness that they shall be restored, 
and the injury done by sin repaired, just as in the 
case of an adult believer to whom the blessed apostle 
John says : " These things write I unto you that ye 
sin not; and if any man sin we have an advocate 
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he 
is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
but for the sins of the whole world." 1 John ii, 1, 2. 
The point, therefore, I would insist upon here is, that 
men do not waste their time, and multiply needless 
points of issue, upon the mere speculation, whether 
a child can grow up without ever forfeiting its first 
acceptance with God, but to see to it that they early 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 337 

and faithfully apply themselves to lead the child to 
Christ for the personal evidence of its acceptance, 
teaching it meanwhile what kind of fruit in the out- 
ward life is suitable to such a state. This personal 
knowledge of acceptance the child is capable of at- 
taining as early as it can know actual sin, and while 
it continues liable to actual sin it continues capable, so 
far as its natural faculties are concerned, and so far 
as the provisions of grace are concerned, of the evi- 
dences of personal salvation. And I see no ground 
for any dogma beyond this. 

7. There is no more common error, or one that 
more constantly disturbs our practical faith in the 
culture or conversion of childhood, than the one of 
misjudging the real capacity of children for religious 
truth. The moral turpitude of their faults is often 
overrated, as if to be judged of by a standard of adult 
responsibility, while their religious exercises are ac- 
cepted with cautious distrust, as if they were merely 
the offspring of the imitative instinct, or the evan- 
escent bubble of the hour. The eccentric, yet dis- 
criminating Thomas De Quincey, on this point has well 
said : " Here, for once, I shall trespass on grounds not 
properly mine, and desire you to observe in St. Mat- 
thew, chap, xxi, 15, ivho were those that, crying in 
the Temple, made the first public recognition of Chris- 
tianity. Then, if you say, ' 0, but children echo what 
they hear, and are not independent authorities!' I 
must request you to extend your reading into verse 
16, where you will find that the testimony of these 



338 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

children, as bearing an original value, was ratified by 
the highest testimony, and the recognition of these 
children did itself receive a heavenly recognition. 
And this could not have been unless there were chil- 
dren in Jerusalem, who saw into truth with a far 
sharper eye than Sanhedrims and Rabbis." Again he 
says : " But coming back to the case of children, I 
maintain steadfastly that into all the elementary feel- 
ings of man children look with more searching gaze 
than adults. It is clear to me that children, upon 
elementary paths, which require no knowledge of the 
world to unravel, tread more firmly than men, have a 
more pathetic sense of the beauty which lies in justice, 
and according to the immortal ode of our great laure- 
ate, [on the 'Intimations of Immortality in Child- 
hood,'] a far closer communion with God." 

8. The simplicity of religious doctrine and experi- 
ence is well adapted to childhood. How simple, for 
instance, is faith! We speak now of faith in the ab- 
stract. The tendency to believe is a gift of nature. 
The child never doubts till experience has taught it 
that deception, and falsehood, and danger beset its 
path. Faith is the gift of nature ; doubt, the fruit of 
the sad experience that falsehood and treachery are 
in the world. We speak now of credulity, or a dis- 
position to believe, as a provision and endowment of 
our being; but we say further, that this ground-work 
of constitutional aptitude of faith is in favor of early 
religion. The child who by natural predisposition be- 
lieves its mother, and learns to doubt only as the effect 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 339 

of repeated abuse of that confidence, may be taught 
to believe in Jesus as the Savior of the soul, and by 
grace enabled thus to believe. The exercise of faith 
in the one case — we are not speaking of mere instinct, 
but of faith — considered simply as an act of the mind, 
is no more difficult, and of necessity involves no higher 
intellectual development than the other. The disposi- 
tion to believe is a power for good, imparted to the 
child for its safety, and put into the hands of the 
parent for the same end. As a simple, constitutional 
power, when rightly called forth and under a gracious 
guidance, it meets all the necessities of early religious 
duty, and proves that the child is capable, through 
grace, of an early religious experience. Nay, further, 
the child is not only capable of faith, but believes far 
more readily and earnestly than the adult. It is less 
affected with habits of sin, habits of doubt, habits of 
false reasoning, pride, self-interest, and a worldly 
mind, and we venture the statement that it more read- 
ily connects events with their religious and' providen- 
tial end than the adult. Is it not so? The child is 
not incumbered with any theory of secondary causes, 
and hence refers things directly to God. It sees God 
in nature more readily than the adult, and in human 
events the natural office of conscience, as by an intu- 
ition, discovers the hand of a rewarding Providence. 
Its simple philosophy is soon expended in its efforts to 
trace the causes of things, and the mind is left in the 
realm of mystery, under impressions of awe and rever- 
ence, where thoughts of God, his power and agency, 



340 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

come in to supply the want. The dew-drop, the rain- 
bow, the thunder-storm, the cataract, the gentle snow- 
flake, the tiny flower, the starry heavens, the solemn 
night, the rising and setting sun, with all the in- 
numerable phenomena of nature, bring to its mind 
thoughts of God. So readily does the mind connect 
Go,d with the facts of nature, when rightly instructed, 
and so early and naturally does conscience refer hu- 
man events to the rewarding goodness or justice of 
God, that many philosophers have contended that the 
knowledge of God is innate in the human mind, and 
have spoken of a " sense of God," as though it were a 
constitutional endowment of our being. But neither 
have we any "natural sense of God," nor is this 
knowledge innate, but these moral experiences and 
exercises of the mind prove only how early Divine 
grace operates to enlighten and lift up the soul to 
God, and how efficacious, through the Holy Spirit, may 
be the careful teaching and culture of childhood. Even 
the glimmerings of traditional knowledge which fall 
upon the heathen mind are powerful to awaken relig- 
ious faith and conscience, and though misdirected, and 
often monstrous in their crude notions of right and 
WTong, yet prove how readily the religious sense in 
man responds to any teaching concerning God, the 
future life, and moral obligation. 

9. And is not prayer equally simple, and equally 
within the comprehension and capabilities of the 
child? Prayer is asking. "Ask and ye shall re- 
ceive." How early does the pressure of infantile 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 341 

want urge to this exercise of asking in regard to the 
numberless items of natural necessity or convenience! 
Ifi prayer to God any more complicated or difficult? 
Jesus has taught us that it is not. The child that 
can ask its parent for a momentary good, can be 
taught to pray to "Our Father who is in heaven" for 
spiritual good. And if we, "being evil, know how to 
give good gifts to our children," even though they 
are of such immature age as to form their reqeusts 
very imperfectly; nay, if we give to them even more 
readily, and certainly, and instantly for the very rea- 
son of their tender years; "how much more shall our 
Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that 
ask him;" and, we may add, how much more readily 
and surely to children, for the very reason of their 
inability to express all their wants ! But prayer is 
not merely a verbal expression of want, not merely 
the " simplest form of speech that infant lips may 
try," but it is 

" The soul's sincere desire, 
Uttered or unexpressed." 

The child has thoughts, fears, desires, longings, aspi- 
rations far above the power of words to express ; and 
who can estimate how clear to the heart of the Savior 
are those longings for light and knowledge in refer- 
ence to that mysterious world unseen, that heaven, 
that way of God of which a glimmering dawn only 
has as yet broken upon the mind? The desire to bo 
fit for that heaven^ to go at length and dwell with 



* 



342 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

that Savior, stirring the earnest depths of the child- 
ish mind, and finding no words to give it form and 
utterance, may be as acceptable to God, and as effect- 
ual to the ends of prayer, as the prolonged supplica- 
tions of a Samuel or a Daniel. 

I see the little one as it wanders in childish pas- 
time through wood and field, plucking the wild flower, 
looking out upon the face of nature, or up into the 
deep-blue sky, or at the glorious orb of day, or list- 
ening to the music of sweet birds, and I observe in 
its sunny thoughts the flitting ideas of God, of 
heaven, and of angelic life to come. I mark, too, 
the rising desire, the unexpressed wish, while memory 
calls back some maternal teaching, some Scripture 
words, or some poetic verse, which suggestive nature 
without and the Holy Spirit within have recalled to 
mind ; or I see -that child impressed with fear at the 
awful storm-cloud, the tempestuous elements, the thick 
darkness of night, the sight of impending danger, the 
inroads of death into the family circle, and within I 
watch the anxious inquiry rising, "Am I prepared 
to meet God?" I see the wish, the desire, the hope, 
the fear struggling together, while mystery inwraps 
the subject in doubt. The heart would fain believe, 
but the thought fails to attain clearness and fixedness. 
Can Jesus look with indifference at these infant trials of 
faith, and hope, and love? That anxious child would 
part with all its little stores and treasures to obtain 
a knowledge free from doubt that God was its friend. 
Who shall be the ministering angel now to relieve 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 343 

this infant mind? Who now will take this lamb in 
his arms? Who shall speak words of instruction, 
comfort, and assurance? The confidence of the child 
turns to the parent. Love turns to the same source 
of help. The parent, or some other dear and trusted 
friend whom Providence may have raised up, must 
now speak for God. The voice of such a friend is to 
the child the voice of God. The judgment, intelli- 
gence, faith, and hope of such a friend now supply 
to the child the offices of personal knowledge and 
faith, and the infant mind, thus reassured, rises to 
hope, confidence, and joy. How else could it rise? 
These are the appointed means. The heart prays 
more than the lips; the disposition to pray and be- 
lieve is greater than the guiding power of thought. 
"God looketh at the heart." "A contrite heart he 
will not despise." 

10. The faith of little children in prayer is illus- 
trated to the observation of every mother, in every 
household where religion is made a primary concern 
in the education, not merely in formal lessons, but in 
daily and lifelike examples. Mrs. Judson, in one of 
her familiar letters, gives the following account of 
her little son : " While we resided at Rangoon," says 
she, "the children became great cowards, and when 
we came over here [at Maulmain] I was obliged to 
take great pains to break it up. One night Edward, 
who slept in a little room by himself, called out that 
he was ' afraid] and would not be comforted. I have 
never taught them a prayer to repeat, because I do 



344 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

not like the formality, but I assist them in discov- 
ering what they need, and then have them repeat 
the words after me; so I prayed with little Edward, 
kissed him good-night, and left him apparently satis- 
fied. Pretty soon, however, I heard him call out as 
though in great distress, ' Dod !' The poor little 
fellow had not sufficient acquaintance with language 
to know what to say next; but this uplifting of the 
heart evidently relieved him, for in a few minutes 
after he again called out, '0 Dod!' but in a tone 
much softened. I stepped to the door, but hesitated 
about entering. In a few minutes he again repeated 
'0 DodP but in a tone so confiding that I thought I 
had better go back to my room, and leave him with 
his great Protector. I heard no more of him for 
some time, when I at last went in and found him on 
his knees fast asleep. He never fails now to remind 
me of asking ' Dod to tate tare of him ' if I neglect 
it, and I have never heard him say a word since of 
being afraid." 

The following instance was authentically related 
to me by a lady: In one of the towns of the far 
West a farmer sent his little daughter of six years 
with a younger brother after the cows. The sun was 
shedding his clear beams over the landscape, and, 
though near the close of day, the birds and the 
flowers were still so attractive as to lure the little 
pair thoughtlessly into play, till the approach of 
nightfall warned them home without time to get the 
cows. The father, as a discipline to them, sent them 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 345 

back. They returned, but had not gone far before 
gray twilight cast its darkening shadows over wood 
and field. From timidity they grew at length thor- 
oughly afraid; and, as the shades of evening thick- 
ened, the younger asked his sister how far she thought 
they were from home? In her fright, and unused to 
measuring distances, she answered, "Ten miles." He 
asked if there were any wolves in that part. She 
said there were. At this the little fellow began to 
cry. They went on, hand in hand, a little further, 
when she, animated with a sudden courage, said to 
her brother, "Now, we'll stop here and pray; for 
I 've seen mother, when she was in any trouble, pray 
to God for help; and we'll pray to God, and he'll 
send an angel to take care of us, or else he will 
send some one from home to fetch us back ; so do n't 
cry now." At this they both kneeled down, and the 
sister first confessed their sin of disobedience in not 
getting the cows the first time, and then prayed to 
God. When they arose she comforted her little 
brother, and assured him that God would take care 
of them. Presently a voice from behind in the dark 
called them. It was the well-known voice of the 
father. "There," said the sister, "I told you God 
would send some one to take care of us." The father 
had, indeed, sent them back as a correction, but had 
followed unobserved in the distance, and had ap- 
proached at length near enough to overhear this last 
conversation and prayer. Here are simple prayer 
and faith as truly exercised and as acceptable to God 



346 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

as the faith of Abraham. Sorrow for sin, contrition, 
repentance, confession, gratitude, praise, and whatso- 
ever belongs to prayer and worship, are as easily 
comprehensible by the child as simple petition. The 
analogues of these devout exercises are found in the 
social relations. What the child does religiously 
toward God is but a spiritual and sanctified direction 
of the faculties in a class of actions which it early 
learns to perform in the social and moral relations to 
the parent and family. 

11. The conscious fruits and experiences of saving 
grace in the heart all relate to the simplest affections 
and emotions. Is the religion of Jesus love to God? 
The child is fully capable of the affection of love, 
and may very early receive the evidence of love to 
God. Those perceptions, affections, and emotions 
which are not dependent on knowledge of science, 
knowledge of the world, or high mental culture, the 
child may attain, and these are such as belong to 
the province of religion. "Love, joy, and peace" 
are fruits of the Spirit, and may enter into the in- 
telligent consciousness of the child very early, though 
always only in proportion to the development of in- 
telligent consciousness. But it is an error to suppose 
that the real piety of the child, and the actual power 
of that piety over the conscience and life, are in pro- 
portion to the power of the child either to express 
its feelings, or to give a reason of its faith and 
hope. Equally absurd is it to judge of the genuine- 
ness and power of piety in childhood by a standard 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 347 

of uniformity of gravity and propriety in manners 
and opinions, such as befit discreet and mature age. 
Truth enters the mind of the child as its natural and 
healthful aliment enters the stomach, only in a simple 
and elemental state, and its outward life is as rudi- 
mental as its inward perceptions of truth and pro- 
priety. But is it less acceptable to God for its 
greater degree of imperfections ? Not if the child 
is judged by the same law as the adult, of whom 
before God it is said, "It is accepted according to 
what a man hath, and not according to what he hath 
not." An angel might mark as great imperfections 
in the adult Christian as we discover in the child. 

The knowledge of pardon is simple and within the 
child's comprehension. How early does the child 
learn the distinction between an injurious act of 
the intention and a pure inadvertence! In the case 
of the latter it pleads the simple defense, " I did n't 
mean to do it," and feels self-assured of the moral 
validity of the plea. But in the case of the for- 
mer, when consciousness of intention possesses the 
mind, if sorrow and penitence are indicated at all, it 
promptly asks and obtains forgiveness, and the con- 
science never rests till that forgiveness is obtained. 
But how promptly does the heart quiet itself, and 
the conscience rest, when the word of forgiveness is 
spoken and the assurance of reconciliation received! 
Such exercises are familiar to the earliest moral and 
intelligent life of childhood. No class of moral exer- 
cises dates earlier. And is not the infant mind 



348 THE RELIGION OE CHILDHOOD. 

equally capable of such exercises in relation to God 
and to religious distinctions? True, God is invisible, 
and the duties and rewards of religion do not so read- 
ily impress the senses or the instinctive nature, as 
do the relations and interests which are merely human 
and perishable. But here comes in the higher reason 
of the parent to teach and to guide, and through its 
leading the feebler reason of the child may take hold 
of God and religious truth, and by prayer and confes- 
sion obtain pardon. The child learns to raise itself 
above the earthy and material by the lifting, sustain- 
ing, and directive process of parental help, like the 
vine which fastens to the sturdy tree, and climbs to 
hights which its oivn strength could not support. The 
child depends upon the parent for teaching as to ac- 
ceptable prayer, and in its first essays needs the ap- 
proving and encouraging voice of the parent to give 
its own faith assurance that God has heard and ac- 
cepted that prayer. If it should seem absurd in the 
eyes of any that the child needs to be taught how 
and when to believe God accepts its confession and 
prayer as a support to its own faith and assurance, 
we have only to say that we affirm no more of the 
child's dependence and of the parent's sponsorship 
in this case than the whole analogy of natural and 
Providential arrangements corroborates. The feeble 
faith of the adult convert often requires the counsel 
and aid of maturer Christian experience in order to its 
better assurance and to enable the mind to judge of 
doctrine and of mental exercises. 



DATE VXD EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 349 

12. Such was the method pursued by the early 
Christians. "Their tender solicitude for the religious 
instruction of their children," says Coleman, "is one 
of their most beautiful characteristics. They taught 
them, even at the earliest dawn of intelligence, the 
Sacred names of God and the Savior ; they sought to 
lead the infant minds of their children up to God by 
familiar narratives of Scripture, of Joseph, of young 
Samuel, of Josiah, and of the holy child Jesus. The 
history of the patriarchs and prophets, apostles and 
holy men, whose lives are narrated in the Sacred Vol- 
ume, were the nursery tales with which they sought 
to form the tender minds of their children. As the 
mind of the child expanded the parents made it their 
sacred duty and delightful task daily to exercise him 
in the recital of select passages of Scripture relating 
to the doctrines and duties of religion. The Bible 
was the entertainment of the fireside. It was the 
first, the last, the only school-book almost of the 
child; and sacred psalmody the only song with which 
his infant cry was hushed, as he was lulled to rest on 
his mother's arm. The sacred song and the rude 
melody of its music were, from the earliest periods of 
Christian antiquity, an important means of impressing 
the infant heart with sentiments of piety, and of imbu- 
ing the susceptible minds of the young with the knowl- 
edge and the faith of the Scriptures." Says Basil, 
of the fourth century, quoted by Coleman : " Leave to 
your children God for their inheritance, and you leave 
them an inestimable treasure. Be it our effort and 



350 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

our desire, then, not to leave to them an inheritance, 
but to leave them in possession of personal piety. 
Preach the name and doctrine of Christ on all occa- 
sions. Let every master of a family know that this 
solemn duty rests upon him in regard to all his 
house." 

13. There is a point so nearly connected with the 
preceding train of remarks, and so naturally suggested 
here, that it seems improper to omit it. The ques- 
tion will arise in the parent's heart often and anx- 
iously, "What if, after all my care and faithfulness, 
my child grows up irreligious? What if he shows a 
distaste for religious things, and refuses my counsel 
and my prayers ?" This, indeed, is a serious, as it is 
certainly a legitimate question. But such an event 
should not baffle the faith and patient effort of the 
parent. You have all the analogies of experience 
and observation to assure you of the inestimable gains 
of an early, godly training. It is according to all 
the known laws of mind and of human character that 
such training should be effectual. You have, above 
all, the express and oft-repeated promise of God that 
it shall be. That promise is incorporated into the 
covenant, wherein you have entered as a party to 
fulfill its stipulations, and to become the recipient of 
its blessings. " I will be a God unto thee, and to thy 
seed after thee." "The promise is unto you, and to 
your children." We say to such a parent, struggling 
against doubts and fears, bearing up under distressing 
anxieties ; we say, " Cast not away, therefore, your 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 351 

confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. 
For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done 
the will of God, ye might receive the promise." Ac- 
oeptahle prayer and obedience do not always receive 
an immediate reward. The prayers and alms of Cor- 
nelius — Acts x, 4 — had long been before the throne 
as a '* memorial" before they received their full and 
appropriate answer and reward. In this, as in all 
our acts of piety, we must fulfill the will of God, and 
then commit the case "to Him that judgeth right- 
eously," waiting his time and order for all results. 
God only can "give the increase," after all our plant- 
ing and watering. "Behold the husbandman waiteth 
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long pa- 
tience for it, until he receive the early and the latter 
rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts." 
Providence has many ways to check our thoughtless- 
ness and correct our waywardness. And consider, 
memory, reflection, and conscience will have an in- 
creasing power over the child as reason develops. 
Your claim on Divine grace is yet valid, by the terms 
of the promise, so long as you are faithful, patient, 
submissive, believing. 

14. But it may still be asked, " Suppose my child 
grows up in all the ways of piety, till he becomes a 
youth, and then, as he begins to act more fully for 
himself, turns away from his early instruction and 
forsakes God?" It must be admitted that these are 
sore trials to parental faith and affection. They seem 
to be contradictions of the covenant promise, and the 



352 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

hopeful promise of childhood piety seems now blasted. 
Still, these instances furnish no valid ground for re- 
linquishing faith in the efficacy of early training. 
Individual responsibility in the youth must always 
modify the Divine dispensations of grace, and can 
never be set aside or destroyed. No promise of 
blessing on faithful childhood nurture must be so con- 
strued as to set aside the conditionality involved in 
the freedom of the will, and the moral responsibility 
of the soul, when it has reached maturer years. 
When the youth reaches a period of life in which 
school, business, or society calls him away from home, 
he then comes in contact with the influences of opin- 
ion, customs, examples, and associations at variance 
with his early teaching and habits; and as they are 
novel, and bear the stamp of fashion and the author- 
ity more or less of public sentiment, the temptation 
to doubt the propriety of his early training, and yield 
to the current of surrounding customs and sentiments, 
becomes powerful indeed. The mind seems like a 
boat caught suddenly in counter currents ; after a few 
unsteady, vibratory motions, it yields to the strongest 
and is borne away in its direction. The passions of 
youth are strong ; experience at that age furnishes no 
guide; the world flatters and allures; gayety, fashion, 
and pleasure attract ; wit and beauty scintillate a false 
light; the illusion is often complete, and to the youth- 
ful mind the world, as it stands in spirit opposed to 
God, often seems real and substantial. The greatest 
trial of character, ordinarily, which the well-trained 



PATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 353 

child will ever experience, is just at that point where 
it first comes in contact with the world outside the 
home circle, and is called to act in new scenes, under 
new trials, against new temptations, unaided by the 
light of any personal experience, and with a yet un- 
tried responsibility. Nor can parents guard this first 
advent into society with too much prayer and caution. 
To avoid it is impossible. Our children must live in 
this world, just as it is, with all its mixtures of good 
and evil, with all its snares and by-paths of sin and 
error. They must, sooner or later, sustain the re- 
sponsible relations of society, and their righteousness 
will be in fulfilling them according to the will of God. 
Let not the parent, therefore, despair at any ap- 
pearance of defeat in early fife. There is a school 
of providence into which all must enter as they come 
to years. Xot one is exempt. As the child goes 
out from under the guiding hand of the parent, he 
comes more directly under the unseen guidance and 
discipline of that Heavenly Father, who will remit no 
care or labor to rear the character which your earlier 
prayers have begun. The youth soon makes a history 
for himself, and that history will inevitably become 
the theme of his reflection, and the occasion of rous- 
ing sensibility, conscience, judgment, and the memory 
of parental instruction. The reflective reason and 
conscience are of later growth, but are the most pow- 
erful and effective instruments of the Holy Spirit in 
turning the soul to the wisdom of the just. " The 
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting 



354 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

upon theni that fear him, and his righteousness UNTO 
children's children, to such as keep his covenant, 
and to those that remember his commandments to do 
them." Ps. ciii, 17, 18. 

15. The principles by which God dispenses grace 
and judgment to men are the same in all ages and 
to all persons, to communities and to individuals, to 
kings and to the humblest poor, differing only in 
the extent and circumstances of their application — 
not in kind nor in the certainty of their operation. 
At a time when the Hebrew nation had lapsed from 
the religion of their forefathers, and were suffering a 
long and gloomy exile for their sins — their country 
and altars desolated and forsaken, and a cheerless 
night hung on them wherein no star of hope had 
yet arisen — their pious men turned their thoughts 
back upon those happy days when the people wor- 
shiped God, and the national covenant was confirmed 
in David. Their comfort and their hope now arose 
from the verity of that ancient covenant. There was 
no joyous sunlight in all their political sky; but 
there was still a resting-place for faith in the ancient 
promises of God. God had said to David : " When 
thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with 
thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which 
shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish 
his kingdom. ... I will be his father, and he shall 
be my son. If he commit iniquity I will chasten 
him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the 
children of men ; but my mercy shall not depart away 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EAIILY TRAINING. 355 

from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away 
before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall 
be established forever before thee." 2 Sam. vii, 12- 
16. Now, it was in the gloomiest hour of Israel's 
backslidden and suffering people that their holy bards 
called to mind this covenant promise, and hung the 
nation's hope thereon. Thus they sung: 

"For the Lord is our defense; 
And the holy one of Israel is our king. 
Then thou spakest in vision to the holy one, and saidst, . . . 
I have found David rny servant: . . . 
My faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him. . . . 
He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, 
My God, the rock of my salvation. . . . 
My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, 
And my covenant shall stand fast with him. 
His seed also will I make to endure forever, 
And his throne as the days of heaven. 
If his children forsake my laio, 
And walk not in my judgments ; 
If they break my statutes, 
And keep not my commandments; 
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, 
And their iniquity with stripes. 
Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take 

from him, 
Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 
My covenant will I not break, 
Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 
Once have I sworn by my holiness 
That I will not lie unto David. 
His seed shall endure forever, 
And his throne as the sun before me. 
It shall be established forever as the moon, 
And as a faithful witness in heaven." Ps. Ixxxix. 

Christian parent, smarting under the anguish of 
disappointed hope, and wounded love, and baffled 



356 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

faith, is there not here a ground of solace? "Hope 
to the end for the salvation" of your child. Fall 
back upon the covenant, and plead its faithful promise, 
and wait in faith. Even if you live not to see the 
fruit of all your prayers and toils in the conversion 
of your child, or if he die far away from you, and 
you have no knowledge of his last hours, still trust 
in a covenant-keeping God. Say, as did the pious 
Isabella Graham, of her wayward son who was lost 
at sea, and from whom no tidings were ever received, 
of whom the anguished mother said, on receiving his 
last letter to her, "I have no tidings of his returning 
from his sinful course, or fleeing from the wrath to 
come, by taking hold of the hope set before him:" 
say with her, in the spirit of a loving faith, "And 
one I know nothing of, more than that I cast him on 
the Lord, and look for mercy." Yes, "cast him on 
the Lord, and look for mercy." God has methods by 
his spirit and his providence, which we know not of, 
of bringing wandering souls to himself; and whether 
any fragment of their last history ever reach us, yet 
we may confidingly plead, " Remember thy word unto 
thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope:" 
Thou hast said, "My loving -kindness will I not take 
from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." 

This, indeed, is an extreme trial and triumph of 
faith which I have supposed, but it goes not beyond 
the warrant of history. How often has the fond 
heart of the parent been relieved of its anguish by 
a token, all wonderful, of God's faithful mercy to a 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 357 

wandering and lost child! Even a prodigal son may 
vet return to his father's house, and the father rejoice 
orer him that " was dead and is alive again.'' Like 
Abraham, he may receive his lost child from the dead 
*• a.< in a figure." For twenty years the pious Monica, 
the mother of Augustine, pursued her lost son with 
prayers, and tears, and earnest entreaties. In boyhood, 
that is, between the ages of four and twelve years, 
he gave evidence of piety, and, as he himself said, 
" believed," and earnestly desired baptism, which his 
mother deferred from a wrong view of the efficacy of 
the ordinance, and of the danger and heinousness of 
sin after baptism. At fifteen he plunged into all the 
excesses of folly and vice which were common to the 
youth of that day. According to his own ''Confes- 
sions," he was a leader in youthful dissipating sports 
and corruptions. As he advanced in learning and 
oratory, he attracted public attention by his talents, 
and in the heat and pride of his ambition he cast 
off the Holy Scriptures, and attached himself to the 
heathen philosophic school of Manes. He arose to 
distinction in Africa, and afterward in Italy, by his 
learning and eloquence; but all this while his devoted 
mother, not flattered by his literary fame, as was the 
Christian mother of David Hume, who was thereby 
lured from the faith and ruined by her son, but con- 
tinuing in prayers, and fastings, and entreaties, fol- 
lowed her wandering child. At last, in his thirty- 
second year, disgusted with the emptiness of the 
heathen philosophy, self-reproached for his personal 



358 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

vices, standing at the head of letters and oratory in 
reputation, he was brought back to Christ. His after- 
life was as marked by its devotion to God as his 
former had been by its errors and aberrations. When 
his conversion was accomplished the work and mission 
of that faithful mother were finished, and in the holy 
triumphs of the Cross she left the world. Christian 
mother, may not God do as much for you? 

Or, if your child dies far away from home, may you 
not trust a covenant-keeping God that some memento 
of his repentance may yet reach you to soothe your 
heart's pain? The young, impetuous Archibald Mar- 
shall, the younger brother of Isabella Graham, left 
home and went to sea. He was afterward lost upon 
the ocean, and for several years no knowledge of him 
could be obtained. He had left home a wayward 
youth. At length a pious woman of Paisley, who 
kept a boarding-house, one day found one of her 
boarders reading Doddridge's Rise and Progress of 
Religion in the Soul. Glancing her eye on the blank 
leaf of the book she saw the name of "Archibald 
Marshall." On inquiry, the stranger told her that he 
got that book from a young man on his death-bed as 
a token of regard; "and I have reason," added he, 
" to bless God that he ever was my messmate." That 
dying young man was the same — the long-lost Archi- 
bald. He had been converted, and had brought his 
messmate to Christ. The good lady well knew the 
Marshall family, and quickly informed them. Thus 
the faithful mercy of God toward an erring child of 



PATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAIN : 

the covenant was evidenced, and the he rrow- 

jely com: f this unlook 

- faithful merer in answer to prayer. 
But should no such fragment reach you of the recla- 
:i and hopeful death of your child, still God has 
thy fatherless children, I will preserve 
them alive: and let thy widows trust in me." Jer. 
11. We must not break the covenant, nor cast 
its promisee as worthless. "His faithfuln; 
unto all gener 

16. The eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel is a most 
solemn and awful declaration of the possibility that a 
child of the covenant may be lost. Of the man who 
ist and doeth that which is lawful and right, who 
hath walked in statutes, and hath kept his judg- 

ments to deal truly." even of such a one the prophet 
•If he beget a son that is a robber, a shed- 
der of blood, and that doeth the like to any of these 
-. and that doeth not any of those duties. . . . 
he shall surely die: his blood shall be upon him." 
u Behold." say- Qc ". •• all souls are mine; as the soul 
of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine : 

THE SOUL THAT 5INNETH IT SHALL LIE." Yet. though 

individual responsibility is an unalterable 
of the moral government, showing the possibility of 
breaking away from the most faithful and earnest 
parental discipline and affection, the truth of God still 
remains, and the law of his covenant remains, that his 
blessing is upon the house of the righteous, and the 
contrary is only the exception, brought about by per- 



360 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

sonal obstinacy and impiety in the child. The dying 
song of David is inimitably touching in reference to 
this very point, and shows the mingling of sadness 
and hope, the confession of God's justice to individual 
sins, with a vigorous and lively faith in his covenant 
promise. After describing the character of a just 
ruler, a true theocratic king of God's covenant people, 
he says : 

"Although my house be not so with God; 
Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant, 
Ordered in all things, and sure : 
For this is all my salvation, and all my desire, 
Although he make it not to grow." 2 Sam. xxiii, 5. 

The "although" here marks the painful exception 
to the piety and prosperity of his house: "Although 
my house be not so with God. . . Although he make 
it not to grow." Sadly did the dying monarch re- 
member Absalom here. " The first note from the 
harp of the dying king," says Dr. Macduff, "is a 
note of sadness. He begins on the minor key — 
' Although.' At that moment a ray of memory darts 
across the past; gloomy anticipations, not regarding 
himself, but others, come looming through the future. 
"With faltering voice he begins his song, ' Although 
my house be not so with God.' An old commentator 
makes the quaint remark on this verse, ' There is an 
although in every man's life and lot.' r ' 

But David rises quickly to brighter scenes, and by 
the strong visions of faith beholds grace superabound- 
ing over sin, God's faithfulness over human frailty and 
disobedience. By the strong grasp of faith he places 



DATE AND EFFICACY OF EARLY TRAINING. 361 

himself upon the firm footing of the well-ordered and 

sure covenant : " Yet he hath made with me an ever- 
lasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.'' 
Ah, it was this covenant that sustained him ! " This 
.11 his salvation and all his desire." "Yet" — al- 
though my house be not so with God — "Yet. 9 ' Here 
hope and faith regain their footing. This "yet" is 
like a rock of safety to the wrecked mariner — like a 
cool water fountain in the parched desert. "Although 
my house be not so ; yet hath he made with me an 
everlasting covenant." Blessed contrast! God is 
faithful, though man is unfaithful. " The although^ of 
life." snys the author last quoted, "are generally 
qualified by some yet. There is something to balance 
our griefs, some counterpart comfort. . . The bitter 
cup has its sweet drops; the dark night has its clus- 
tering stars of consolation and solace; the Valley of 
Baca has its wells of joy; the warm, and green, and 
sunny spots of the wilderness outnumber the dreary." 
Christian parent, if the sad memories of thy house, 
or the doubtful omens of the future, force thee in tears 
of sorrow to record the "although" look once again 
to the covenant of mercy and grace, "ordered in all 
things and sure ;" behold the bow of promise spanning 
the dark cloud, the bow of God's covenant, and grate- 
fully, and hopefully, and joyfully record thy "yet" to 
the praise of God. 

31 



362 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 



CHAPTER VII. 

EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY, AND THE EARLY RE- 
LIGIOUS CAPABILITIES OF CHILDHOOD. 

All theory to be tested by practice — Example of Jesus — His child- 
hood life illustrates the possibilities of all childhood through grace — 
His character under twelve years — At twelve years — After twelve 
years — His junior life falls within the capabilities of our nature — 
Example of Samuel — Of Timothy — Some of the prophets — Polyearp — ■ 
Origen — Augustine — Chrysostom — Lady Huntington — Dr. Dod- 
dridge — Rev. C. Gridley — Hester Ann Rogers — Bishop Hedding — 
Force of early training in Papists, pagans, Mohammedans — Char- 
lotte Elizabeth — Cases noted by Mr. Wesley — Cases of personal ob- 
servation — Rev. Ira Fairbank — Willie Stacy — Daughter of Dr. 
Scott — Children of the millennium. 

1. Ix further illustration of the period at which 
infantile piety may take root, and at which the faith- 
ful "nurture and admonition of the Lord," through 
parental instrumentality, may take effect, we offer a few 
examples illustrative of the point. If the doctrines we 
have advanced be true, it is reasonable to demand 
and expect that they will stand supported by facts. 
They relate to facts in human nature and history, 
and the mind naturally inquires whether they stand 
supported or contradicted by authentic history. All 
practical truth must be estimated by its actual in- 
fluence on life and character. Experience is the test 
of the value of all ethical philosophy or doctrine. 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 363 

Docs the history of our nature, when brought under 
religious culture, substantiate the foregoing doctrines 
respecting the religion of childhood? Out of the 
multitude of instances which faithful history has re- 
corded, a few only can be given. We begin, as we 
obviously •should, with the infant life of Jesus. 

'2. Ever precious is the example of Jesus in its 
bearing on the question of the salvation of childhood. 
u Christ took upon him our nature," says the good 
Bishop Taylor, " to sanctify and save it, and passed 
through the several periods of it, even unto death, 
which is the symbol of old age ; and, therefore, it is 
certain that Christ did sanctify all the periods of life. 
Why should he be an infant, but that infants should 
receive the crown of their age, the purification of 
their stained nature, the sanctification of their per- 
sons, and the saving of their souls, by their infant 
Lord, and their elder brother?" Irenseus, A. D» 167, 
beautifully says : " Christ came to save all persons by 
himself; all, I mean, who by him are regenerated 
unto God — infants, and little ones, and children, and 
youths, and elder persons. Therefore he w T ent through 
the several ages ; for infants being made an infant, 
sanctifying infants ; to little ones lie was made a little 
one, sanctifying those of that age, and also giving 
them an example of godliness, justice, and dutifulness ; 
to youths he teas a youth," etc. 

This argument is not fanciful. Did not the ex- 
ample of Christ in adult age furnish us with a model, 
and are we not commanded to "follow his steps?" 



364 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Does not the example of his personal and social vir- 
tues, and his holy obedience to the Father's will, illus- 
trate the possibilities of our redeemed and renewed 
adult nature, and become the pledge to us that the 
faithful disciple " shall be as his Master?" If the 
adult example of the holy Jesus is binding on adult 
disciples, is not the infant example of the infant 
Jesus binding on children? If the holy life of the 
man Jesus shows us how men should walk and live, 
does not the holy childhood of the child Jesus show 
us how children should live? Is not all the life of 
Jesus set before us in its successive periods, and in 
its entireness, that human nature, in all its successive 
periods of growth, and in all its conditions, might be 
encouraged and comforted ? Yerily, the children have 
a portion here. The Savior could not overlook them. 
In the 5th chapter of Romans Paul distinctly lays 
it down that Christ is our representative — our second 
Adam — and that his obedience and righteousness be- 
come the procuring cause of unconditional " justifica- 
tion," "righteousness," and "life" to our common 
humanity, our infant humanity. This is the common 
doctrine of the New Testament. He is our perfect 
representative. He assumed our nature in behalf of 
our race, of all our race, our race in all its modes 
and stages of existence. " Forasmuch, then, as the 
children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also 
himself likewise took part of the same." What he 
did, he did for our common nature, infancy included 
by necessary consequence. 



EXAMPLES OP EARLY PIETY. 365 

Now, if this be so, all that part of his life which 
relates to childhood is a precious pledge of grace to 
childhood, and an illustration of the possibilities of 
sanctified childhood. Let us, then, for a moment look 
at the lessons taught by the few hints given of his 
earl j life. 

(1.) His character w T as progressive, like his years, 
in his early life. He was a perfect child before he 
became a perfect man. He assumed all the stages of 
human life in their perfect form. It is said of him, 
at and after the tender age of forty days, " And the 
child grew, and w T axcd strong in spirit, filled with 
wisdom ; and the grace of God was upon him." 
Luke ii, 40. " This," says Olshausen, " is precisely 
the idea of the Messiah in his human development, 
that he presents each stage of life pure and unsullied 
by sin ; yet so as never to obliterate the character of 
the stage itself. He was completely a child, com- 
pletely a youth, completely a man; and thus hal- 
lowed all the stages of human development ; but noth- 
ing incongruous ever appeared in him, which would 
have been the case if utterances of a riper age had 
escaped him in childhood." What a beautiful ex- 
ample for the encouragement of little children ! How 
early in life do the " grace of God" and heavenly 
" wisdom " reach us ! How early our children may 
be the subjects of such grace and wisdom ! True, we 
have no authority for supposing that our children 
may have grace and wisdom in equal measure and 
perfection with the infant Savior ; but they can have 



366 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

the same "grace" and "wisdom," and the same 
" strength of spirit," in kind or quality, as is here 
denoted. The blessed Savior illustrates the privilege, 
and duty, and possibilities of childhood, when fully 
brought under the influences and instrumentalities of 
his redeeming economy. We can not deny this with- 
out denying, by necessary consequence, the whole 
doctrine of the substitutional and representative char- 
acter and office of Christ. Christian parent, have you 
considered this ? Does your faith now lay hold of 
this precious truth, and plead it in behalf of your in- 
fant child? Does your heart melt and flow out in 
tearful and holy gratitude to the Divine Father for 
the gift of the infant Jesus, and the example of his 
sanctified childhood, that your own dear offspring 
might also be " partaker of his holiness ?" 

(2.) The next record that is made of the child 
Jesus is on reaching his twelfth year. His parents 
annually went up to Jerusalem to the Passover-feast ; 
and when he was twelve years old — "a period," says 
Keander, "which was regarded as the dividing line 
between childhood and youth" — and so, according to 
the Jewish custom, came under the yoke of the law, 
and was called "a son of the law," his parents took 
him to the feast. It was at this time that he had the 
ever-memorable interview with the Jewish doctors. 
The whole account should be read. It runs thus : 

"And when he was twelve years old, they went up 
to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And 
when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, 



EXAMPLES 01 EARLY PIETY. 367 

the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Jo- 
seph and his mother knew not of it. But they, sup- 
posing him to have been in the company, went a day's 
journey ; and they sought him among their kinsfolk 
and acquaintance. And when they found him not, 
they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. 
And it came to pass, that after three days they found 
him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the doc- 
tors, both hearing them and asking them questions. 
And all that heard him w T ere astonished at his under- 
standing and answers. And when they saw him, 
they were amazed; and his mother said unto him, 
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy 
father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he 
said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist 
ye not that I must be about my Father's business ? 
And they understood not the saying which he spake 
unto them." 

The tarrying of Jesus behind his parents and the 
company must not be construed as a neglect or re- 
missness of filial duty on his part. He had a higher 
relation to the Divine Father than to Joseph and 
Mary, and he was, in this act of tarrying in the 
Temple, doing his " Father's business." His reply 
to his mother — "Wist ye not that I must be about 
my Father's business?" — w r as a gentle monition to 
them that the claims of his true Father were para- 
mount to theirs, and he "must" yield to them. 
Then, again, how perfectly childlike his whole de- 
meanor in the Temple, and how perfectly suitable to 



368 THE RELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

a holy and devout child! He was not teaching the 
doctors of the law, nor was he disputing or arguing ; 
but simply " hearing them, and ashing them ques- 
tions." This was suitable to his years. He never 
appears out of character. A beautiful harmony and 
fitness pervades all his life. Consider, also, this was 
in the Temple, his Father's house, among the doctors 
of the Jewish law, whose duty it was to expound the 
law of Moses. His questions were, indeed, wisely put ; 
"all that heard him were astonished at his under- 
standing and answers ;" but still his whole attitude 
and demeanor were perfectly childlike, those of a 
learner suitable to his years. Is not the blessed Jesus 
herein an example to all children? 

One point further is ever precious in its exemplary 
influence on childhood. At this early age the Savior 
felt a holy constraint, an urgent, impulsive necessity, 
arising out of his love to his Father and for his holy 
will, to be even now about his Father's business. " I 
must be about my Father's business." Here, indeed, 
as Stier well says, "we recognize a dawning sense of 
his Divine mission in the mind of Jesus," yet without 
in any wise doing away with the peculiar form of 
the spiritual life in the mind of childhood. He had 
now only reached the earliest stage at which he was 
accounted, under the law, entitled to full Church 
privilege, and his earnest heart aspires to that active 
life of obedience which he was called to fulfill. Can 
any child of twelve years, properly taught in the his- 
tory of Christ, and in his relation to Christ, fail to 



BXAMPLBS OF EARLY PIETY. 369 

receive the impression this act of the Savior was in- 
tended to give ? AVill not the desire to imitate this 
example awaken in the breast? And will it not re- 
prove the thoughtlessness and remissness of undutiful 
childhood ? "Why should not our children be in the 
Temple and at the Christian Passover at twelve 
years ? The Savior has honored and sanctified that 
sge. 

(3.) From the time Jesus was twelve years old till 
he was thirty, all that is recorded of him is found in 
Luke ii, 51, 52. After the interview with the doc- 
tors just recorded, Mary and Joseph returned home, 
and it is said "Jesus went down with them and came 
to Nazareth, and was subject unto them" This com- 
prehensive sentence — "was subject unto them" — shows 
that he fulfilled the command of the Old Testament, 
" Honor thy father and thy mother," and also of the 
New Testament, " Children, obey your parents in the 
Lord." In verse 52 it is said of him, "And Jesus 
increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with 
God and man." Lovely example! So may all chil- 
dren follow him herein, as truly as older Christians 
can follow him in his maturer life. Christian mother, 
would you not choose this for your child above all 
riches and honors of this world? And do not think 
these infant virtues of Jesus, because they belonged 
to a holy and perfect being, are therefore inimitable 
and altogether above our reach. We shall presently 
see how Samuel and others attained to a sanctified 
childhood. But just here remember that, though 



370 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

Jesus was not a sinful being like your child, yet 
through all his childhood he undertook no act of a 
miraculous character, and never assumed any thing 
above the possibilities of redeemed human nature. 
He was a perfect child, perfectly human — sin always 
excepted — and the virtues which adorned him were 
only those which belong to sanctified humanity and 
the innocent relations of our nature. His life falls 
within the sphere of our humanity, and is our hu- 
manity's highest honor and richest inheritance. O 
ye parents who love the Lord, fail not to bring the 
life and example of the "holy child Jesus" clearly 
and familiarly before your children ! Teach them to 
love, revere, and imitate. 

3. The case of Samuel is in point here. His 
mother had asked him of the Lord, and had prom- 
ised to " give him to the Lord all the days of his 
life." 1 Sam. i, 11. Mark these two facts — this son 
was asked of the Lord, under a promise of life-long 
consecration. Here was a religious estimate placed 
on the gift of a son, and a religious rendering back 
to God that earnestly sought gift. "Lo children are 
a heritage of the Lord," says Solomon. Psalm 
cxxvii, 3. And when this son of many prayers was 
born his name was called Samuel — that is, asked 
of God — because, said his grateful mother, U I have 
asJced Mm of the Lord." True to her promise she 
brought him up for God. At the time of the yearly 
sacrifice his mother went not up to Shiloh ; " For she 
said unto her husband, I will not go up until the child 



- F EARLY PIETY. 371 

be wi . 1 then I will bring him. that he may 

appear before the Lord, and there abide forever. . . . 
And when she had weaned him, she took him with her, 
and brought him unto the house of the Lor ... 

young" V a - 22, 24. When Hannah had 
ieFa birth and 
tion : I that "he [Samuel] 

se 28. "And Elkanah weir to 
Ramah to his hone : did min 

Mi ' Chap, ii, 11. "But 

Samuel ministered unto the Lord, being a child." 
18. "And v mud grew before the 

." Chap. ii. 21. "And Samuel grew, and the 
Lord h him. and did let none of his words 

fall to the ground : and all Israel, from Dan even to 
Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a 
prophet of the Lord."' Chap. iii. 19. 20. 

A more lucid instance is not upon record of the 
:ig of God upon infantile consecration and in- 
struct n. The piety of Samuel reaches back to 
earliest childhood. "When he first appeared in the 
sanctuary at Shiloh, "he n Lord there/ 3 

showing that it was no new or uncommon thing, but 
is mentioned as if it were, and as we know it was. a 
familiar part of his early Mbit while in his mother's 
care. His pi< a constant growth, dating far 

in the twilight of earliest chiklhoo oting 

in the instructions he received while yet under five 

• 
4. The case of Timothy is no less clear. Paul says 



372 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

to him, " And that from a child thou hast known the 
holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise 
unto salvation." 2 Tim. iii, 15. The word translated 
child is ftpeyoc, — brephos — infant — not the usual word 
for child, clearly pointing to the age of three years 
old and under. From earliest conscious reason, he 
had been taught the holy Scriptures, taught them, 
that is, as far as his years and capacity could receive 
them, known them in those teachings which were 
suited to his wants. We know from Acts xvi, 1, that 
Timothy's mother was a Jewess; and we learn from 
2 Tim. i, 5, that the " unfeigned faith" that was in 
Timothy, "dwelt first in his grandmother Lois, and 
his mother Eunice." The pious maternal ancestry of 
Timothy had secured for him an early instruction and 
discipline in the Word of God, and his training, which 
had proved so effectual to establish him in the true 
and " unfeigned faith," began while he was yet an in- 
fant in his mother's care. 

5. Those instances wherein persons have been de- 
clared as sanctified from the birth, evidently imply 
the earliest and most faithful and continued nurture. 
We know it is the order of God to work by means, 
and wherever we find remarkable instances of piety 
and devotion to God from childhood, we may confi- 
dently infer that the instrumentality of parental nur- 
ture and discipline has been faithfully applied. We 
are not authorized to suppose the contrary. We 
know, indeed, that God is a sovereign, and can bestow 
grace in different measures, talents in various number, 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 373 

advantages in greater or less degree; but among a 
people who have the Bible, the ordinances, and the 
covenant, it is not his order and plan to choose, and 
raise up from infancy, holy men, without the instru- 
mentality of early instruction, discipline, and habits 
of piety. We speak this to indicate the general law 
of Providence in the scheme of redemption. Gra- 
cious exceptions there are, as a Hezekiah from the 
house of Ahaz. and Josiah from the worthless Amon; 
but it is not of the exceptional or possible cases that 
we are now speaking, but of the ordinary rule of 
Providence. 

Now, in conformity with this principle, mark in- 
stances like the following: Isaiah says, chap, xlix, 
1, " The Lord hath called me from the womb, from 
the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of 
my name." So also in verse 5. God says to Jere- 
miah, chap. i. 5, Before thou wast born "I sanctified 
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." 
And hence Jeremiah was actually called while yet 
young and of tender years. " Then said I, Ah, Lord 
God ! behold I can not speak, for I am a child," verse 
6. This certainly indicates a tender age for the pro- 
phetic office, and reminds us of the early call of Sam- 
uel ; i; and the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord 
before Eli." and it was at this age that God called 
him and made known to him his first prophetic mes- 
See 1 Sam. iii. Of John the Baptist it was 
Id by the angel, that "he should be filled with 
the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb,''" Luke 



374 THE EELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

i, 15. We find also various examples of established 
piety at the ages of fifteen and seventeen, which 
speak volumes on the point of infantile and early 
training. Joseph could stand alone in Egj T pt against 
the most crushing adversities and seductive tempta- 
tions. Daniel and his three brethren could take a 
martyr-like position at the court of Nebuchadnezzar, 
in relation to diet and such things as involved obe- 
dience to the law of Moses. David exhibited a hero's 
faith when but a " ruddy youth," a " stripling," go- 
ing forth to meet Goliath. Such instances of early 
establishment in faith, in doctrine, and in habits of 
conscientious duty, argue a previous training from in- 
fancy, such as the Old Testament every where enjoins. 
6. The blessed martyr, Polycarp, was a glorious 
example of the power of early instruction and the 
sanctification of childhood. Polycarp was Bishop of 
Smyrna. When ninety years old, he was brought to 
the stake for no other crime than that of being a 
Christian. The Proconsul of Asia Minor would gladly 
have saved him out of veneration for his gray hairs, 
his simple life, and his* great public influence, and at 
the place of execution again urged him to recant. 
" Swear," said the Proconsul ; " curse Christ, and I 
release thee." To which the venerable man replied, 
" Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath 
done me nothing but good; and how could I curse 
him, my Lord and Savior?" The Proconsul still urg- 
ing him, Polycarp replied, "If you would know what 
I am, I tell you frankly, I am a Christian." When' 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 375 

at the stake, and all tilings ready for the execution, 
before the lire was lighted, he thus prayed, "Lord, 
Almighty God, Father of thy beloved Son, Jesus 
Christ, through whom we have received from thee the 
knowledge of thyself; God of angels and of the whole 
creation; of the human race and of the just that live 
in thy presence; I praise thee, that thou hast judged 
me worthy of this day and of this hour, to take part 
in the cup of thy witnesses, and of thy Christ." 

Polycarp was the disciple and intimate friend of 
the apostle John, and suffered martyrdom A. D. 167, 
having enjoyed the personal instructions of John 
about twenty-three years. Of these dreadful perse- 
cutions of the Church in Smyrna, the blessed apostle 
had forewarned them, at the same time commending 
their faithful piety. Polycarp himself was probably 
the "angel of the Church" addressed, and probably 
to him apply John's words: "I know thy works, and 
tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich.) . . . Fear 
none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, 
the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye 
may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : 
be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a 
crown of life." Rev. ii, 8-11. In the annals of 
Christian martyrdom'a more spotless and illustrious 
example than this of Polycarp is not found. But 
the point which here concerns us is, the early date of 
his Christian life and profession. u Eighty and six 
years have I served him" says this old man of ninety. 
At four years of age began his Christian life ! Pre- 



376 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

cious example ! And this " angel of the Church of 
Smyrna" is no more than all should be, in the early 
date and life-long consistency of his Christian piety 
and profession. This it is which gives strength and 
purity to character. Sanctified childhood will bring a 
manhood of maturity and an age of ripeness in the 
things of God. 

7. Origen, who was born in Alexandria eighteen 
years after Poly carp's death, and who became one of 
the most learned and influential of the Christian 
fathers, was early instructed by his mother in the 
Christian religion, and to her he owed, under God, 
both his religion and his greatness. She it was who 
controlled and disciplined his passions, and educated 
him with the pious care which a Christian mother 
alone could bestow; so that at the tender age of 
eighteen years he was raised to the dignity of Presi- 
dent of the School of Alexandria. Eusebius says 
" the Christian doctrine was taught him by his fore- 
fathers," which Rufinus translates "his grandfathers 
and his great grandfathers." Who can fail to trace 
the extraordinary qualities of this man to his early 
and thorough childhood education in the Christian 
religion ? 

8. Augustin is another example of the efficacy of 
early training. " A truly pious mother," says Nean- 
der, had seasonably scattered the seeds of Christian- 
ity in Augustin's heart while yet a child. The in- 
cipient germs of Ms spiritual life were unfolded in 
the unconscious piety of childhood. Whatever treas- 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 377 

■fee <>f virtue and worth, the life of faith, even of a 
soul not trained by scientific culture can bestow, was 
set before him in the example of his pious mother." 
Such was the beginning; of a life ever memorable and 
honored in the page of Church history. At the age 
of thirteen, it is true, he relapsed, but was reclaimed 
afterward, and stood forth one of the greatest lights 
of the Church. 

9. So was Chrysostom — A. D. 347 — blessed with 
infantile Christian training. "His pious mother, An- 
thusa," says the author last quoted, "who, being left 
a widow, devoted herself entirely to his education, 
was to him what Monica was to Augustin. But the 
seeds of faith sown in his infant mind were not, as in 
the case of Augustin, long kept in check by the pre- 
dominance of wild passions ; and without experiencing 
such violent storms and struggles in his more gentle 
soul, he was enabled to develop himself with a quiet 
and gradual progress under more favorable influ- 
ences." "His Christian life and character had not 
been the result of any violent crisis, but from his 
early youth it had developed itself under the influence 
of a profound study of the sacred Scriptures, and of 
pious friends and associates surrounding him with a 
gentle atmosphere of Christian excitement." 

10. Lady Selina Shirley — afterward Lady Hunting- 
ton — even in very early infancy — says her London 
biographer — was of a serious cast. When only nine 
years old, while standing at the grave of one about 

her age, she was so impressed with eternal things 

32 



378 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

that, "with many tears, she earnestly implored God 
on the spot, that whenever he should be pleased to 
take her away he would deliver her from all her fears, 
and give her a happy departure. She often after- 
ward visited the grave, and always preserved a lively 
sense of the affecting scene she had there witnessed. 
Though no correct views of evangelical truth had 
hitherto enlightened her ladyship's mind, yet even 
during her juvenile days she frequently retired for 
prayer to a particular closet, where she could not be 
observed, and in all her little troubles found relief in 
pouring out the feelings of her heart to God. When 
she grew up and was introduced into the world, she 
continued to pray that she might marry into a serious 
family." From these germs of piety which rooted in 
her earliest childhood, though not encouraged by early 
evangelical nurture, she became one of the most re- 
nowned for piety and extensive usefulness of the illus- 
trious characters of the last century. "Her tender 
age exhibited a fine dawn of her mature excellence," 
and her childhood aspirations after God were grati- 
fied and realized a thousand-fold in a long life of 
holy fellowships and almost unparalleled influence and 
activity. 

11. The amiable and learned Dr. Doddridge says 
of himself: "I was brought up in the early knowledge 
of religion by my pious parents, who were in their 
character very worthy of their birth and education; 
and I well remember that my mother taught me the 
history of the Old and New Testament before I could 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 379 

read, by the assistance of some blue, Dutch tiles in 
the chimney-place of the room where we commonly 
sat : and the wise and pious reflections she made upon 
those stories were the means of enforcing such good 
impressions on my heart as never afterward wore 
off." At the early age of thirteen he was called to 
bury his father, his faithful mother having been called 
away previous to that time, and he wrote: "God is 
an immortal Father. My soul rejoiceth in him. He 
has hitherto helped me and provided for me. May it 
be my study to approve myself a more affectionate, 
grateful, and dutiful child." Such was the beginning 
of a life and character lovely as the beloved apostle's, 
and honored by much learned and useful labor. 

12. In reading religious biography we not unfre- 
quently meet with instances similar to the following, 
which we take from a recent religious journal: "Rev. 
Chauncey Gridley died in the city of Hudson, New 
York, November 26, 1860, aged eighty. When but 
five years old he experienced religion, and never 
wholly lost the fruits of that change. In his fifteenth 
year he was powerfully blest, and ever after * walked 
with God.'" Beautiful record! Many similar cases 
we could quote from personal knowledge. "When 
but five years old he experienced religion!" 

13. Equally clear is the testimony of Hester Ann 
rs. She says: "I was early drawn out to secret 

prayer; I believed God was the author of all good, of 
all happiness; and sin the cause of all misery and 
pain. If, therefore, I wished for anything I had not, 



380 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

I asked God in secret to grant "it to me. And in any 
pain of body, or in any of my childish grief, I fled to 
him for ease and comfort; and it would be incredible 
to some how often I have received manifest answers 
to prayer when not more than four years old, and how 
my tender mind has been comforted. I was deeply 
affected, and had very serious thoughts of death for 
some time, and after seeing the corpse of a little 
brother of mine, who died of the small-pox when I 
was five years old, I took great delight in the Bible, 
and could at this time read any part of the Old or 
New Testament, always asking questions so as to ob- 
tain understanding of what I read. I do not remem- 
ber ever going to bed without having said my prayers 
except once; I was then diverted by a girl, who told 
me many childish stories, and so took up my atten- 
tion that I forgot to pray till I was in bed; and then, 
being alone, I recollected what I had done, and con- 
science greatly accused me." In this tender con- 
science and with these habits of religion she might 
have been brought up without the interval of fashion- 
able folly which she afterward records, had she been 
vigilantly guarded by judicious, maternal counsel 
through all the years of her childhood and youth. 

14. The late venerable Bishop Hedding began 
the habit of secret prayer when he was four years 
old, and continued it for several years; and had he 
been blessed at that age with parents experimentally 
acquainted with the Christian religion, under their 
faithful teaching and pious example would doubtless 



BXAMPLBfl OF EARLY PIETY. 381 

have grown up in that habit, and, like Timothy, have 
known Christ from a child — coming to the personal 
evidences of a change of heart when his understanding 
became sufficiently developed. 

15. The force of early habit, where it is exact and 
rooted in the religious conscience^ is like a second 
instinct. We have seen it developed in the history 
of superstition upon a wide scale. Why are the 
children of pagans pagans? and why are the chil- 
dren of Papists Papists? Why do the children of 
Mohammedans uniformly believe in the Koran? The 
answer is found in their early education; it is the 
influence of traditional faith and early training. We 
find no large exceptions among them in favor of a 
skeptical class as among Protestants. The child of 
the Papist, the Mohammedan, and pagan is early 
fortified in the dogmas and habits of its religion, 
so as to become proof against all the ordinary in- 
fluences of proselytism. Why can not Christian 
Protestant children be equally confirmed in truth 
and the habits of piety? Admitting that our nature 
is depraved, and "of itself inclined to evil continu- 
ally," and hence more susceptible of a religion which 
lays no restraint upon the selfish passions and desires, 
yet is not grace supplied to counteract this evil? 
And where sin "abounded" may not grace "much 
more abound?" Does not the atonement make pro- 
vision for these wants of our being, and "the Spirit 
help our infirmities?" A garden left to itself will 
produce only weeds; but with culture will it not 



382 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

as well produce good things? And so "will the grace 
of God bless and reward parental faithfulness in the 
offices of holy instructions and discipline. 

16. What might not right culture and assiduous 
care effect, by the grace of God, in the childhood 
of such a mind as that of the earnest, ingenuous, 
and gifted Charlotte Elizabeth ? "To a period so 
early as the middle of my fourth year" says she, 
"I can revert with the most perfect, most vivid recol- 
lection of my habitual thoughts and feelings." Could 
she not at that age have attained to a distinct expe- 
rience of the evidence of saving grace had she been 
familiarly led in that direction? When only seven 
years old she became so wrought up with the mar- 
tyr's enthusiasm, by poring over the pictures and 
pages of an old folio of Fox's Book of Martyrs, 
that she earnestly asked her father if she too might 
not be burned to death for her religion as those mar- 
tyrs were? Yet at the same time she says: "Of 
spiritual knowledge not the least glimmer had ever 
reached me in any form, yet I knew the Bible most 
intimately, and loved it with all my heart, as the 
most sacred, the most beautiful of earthly things." 
Brought up amid the vivid historic associations of 
the bloody persecutions of the Protestants by Queen 
Mary, and under a system of instruction adapted to 
develop the strong sympathies and doctrinal points 
of the Reformation, she said : " This I know, that 
at six years old the foundation of a truly Scriptural 
protest was laid in my character." She adds : " The 



KKAMPLES OP EARLY PIETY. 383 

Word was my delight many a year before it became 
my counselor. . . . Religion, however, did at this 
early period of my life become a very important 
concern in my eyes. Our mother had taken infinite 
pains to assure us of one great truth — the omnis- 
cience of an omnipresent God; and this I never 
could for a moment shake off. It influenced us both 
in a powerful manner, so that if either committed a 
fault we never rested till, through mutual exhortation 
on the ground that God certainly knew it, and would 
be angry if we added deceit to another error, we had 
encouraged each other to confession. We then went, 
hand in hand, to our mother, and the one who stood 
clear of the offense acknowledged it in the name of the 
transgressor, while both asked pardon." With a mind 
so ingenuous and so susceptible the foundations of 
religion were early and strongly laid; yet for want 
of spiritual instruction and example she did not come 
to an experimental knowledge of the Savior till ma- 
ture years, and when she at last sought and found 
pardon in Christ it was not by human instrumentali- 
ties, but by calling to mind, upon a bed of affliction, 
those many Scriptures which she had committed to 
memory when a child, and which the Holy Spirit 
now caused to become to her the "power of God 
unto salvation." Millions of children are as sus- 
ceptible of early faith and piety as she; and who 
shall answer for the long delay of their conversion, 
perhaps their final failure in coming to Christ? 

17. Among the numerous references to early piety 



384 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

to which Mr. Wesley's attention was- called are the 
following, noted in his Journal. He says: "I buried 
one who had soon finished her course, going to God' 
in the full assurance of faith when she was little 
more than four years old. In her last sickness — 
having been deeply serious in her behavior several 
months before — she spent all the intervals of her 
convulsions in speaking of or to God. And when 
she perceived her strength to be nearly exhausted, 
she desired all the family to come near, and prayed 
for them all, one by one, then for her ministers, for 
the Church, and for the world. A short time after, 
recovering from a fit, she lifted up her eyes and said, 
' Thy kingdom come,' and died." 

18. At another time he said: "I inquired more 
particularly of Mrs. N. of her little son. She said 
he appeared to have a continual fear of God, and an 
awful sense of his presence, that he frequently went 
to prayer by himself, and prayed for his father and 
many others by name. That he had an exceedingly 
great tenderness of conscience, being sensible of the 
least sin, and crying and refusing to be comforted 
when he thought he had in any thing displeased God; 
that a few days since he broke out in prayer aloud, 
and then said : ' Mamma, I shall go to heaven soon 
and be with the little angels, and you will come there, 
too, and my papa ; but you will not go so soon ;' that 
the day before he went to a little girl in the house, 
and said : ' Polly, you and I must go to prayers. 
Don't mind your doll, kneel down now; I must go 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 385 

to prayers, Grod bids me.' When the Holy Ghost 
teaches/ 9 adds Mr. Wesley, "is there any delay in 
learning? This child was then just three years old! 
A year or two after he died in peace." 

19. Again he says: At Sheffield "I was glad of 
having an opportunity of talking with a child I had 
heard of. She was convinced of sin some weeks be- 
fore by the words of her elder brother— about eight 
years old — dying as a hundred years old in the tri- 
umphs of faith. I asked her abruptly, ' Do you love 
she said, 'Yes, I do love him with all my 
heart.' I said, 'Why do you love him?' she an- 
swered, 'Because he has saved me.' 'How has he 
saved you ?' she replied, ' He has taken away my 
sins.' I said, ' How do you know that V she an- 
swered, 'He told me himself on Saturday, Thy sins 
are forgiven thee, and I pray to him without a book. 
I was afraid to die, but now I am not afraid to die; 
for if I die I shall go to him.' " 

Many such instances are recorded. Mr. Wesley 
had confidence in the piety of little children, and 
often met them in schools and groups for conversa- 
tion and religious instruction. The Methodist Disci- 
pline, in its specific directions concerning the pastoral 
oversight and teaching of little children, long before 
the system of modern Sunday schools was known, 
- its own testimony of the Scriptural insight of 
that great man into the religious capabilities and des- 
tiny of childhood. Mr. Wesley preceded Robert Raikes 
in this field of Gospel renovation by many years. 



o5b THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

20. Some years ago I was in company with two 
other gentlemen and a lady, when the conversation 
turned upon early piety, and the question was started 
as to the date when each obtained the evidence of 
salvation. The result showed that one was con- 
verted at eight years of age, two at nine years, and 
one at ten. The lady had come to the personal evi- 
dence of salvation at nine years. Her habit of relig- 
ion dated earlier than memory. She had long been 
a most useful and reputable educator of youth, two 
of us were ministers of the Gospel, and the other was 
a physician as widely reputable and useful as any 
man of his profession in the State of New York. 
And how many such discoveries might be made of 
early religious experience if the inquiry should go 
round ! 

21. The late Rev. Ira Fairbank, a respectable minis- 
ter in the Methodist Episcopal Church in Western 
New York, was converted to God when a child under 
eight years. He was lying in his little bed at night 
while a prayer meeting was going on in an adjoining- 
room. He lifted his heart to God with them, alone 
upon his little cot in the dark, and God heard and 
blessed him. He grew up a Christian, became a re- 
spectable and useful preacher of the Gospel, and in 
the honors of his gray hairs, respected and beloved, 
he was called to his heavenly reward. We buried 
him with many pleasant memories and sweet hopes. 

22. Willie Stacy was the son of Rev. Thomas Stacy, 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, now cf Clifton 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 387 

Springs, Now York. Ho was a beautiful boy, cheer- 
ful and frolicsome, loving and tenderly loved. He 
was taken violently sick in 1850, from the effects of 
which he never recovered. Overhearing his mother 
say one day that she feared he never would get well, 
he quickly slipped out of the room, and his mother, 
soon following him, found him weeping. She sat 
down by his side, and soothingly inquired the cause of 
his grief. He told her he did not want to die; he was 
afraid to die. His mother told him of the Savior's 
love, and kneeled and prayed with him. From this 
time he was known very frequently to go away and 
pray by himself. Some weeks passed, when one day 
his mother coming into the room saw such a change 
in his countenance, that she asked him : " My son, 
what are yoti thinking about?" "Of the goodness 
of God," was the reply. "In what respect, my 
child?" "In forgiving me all my sins," he said. 
From that day till the hour of his death he continued 
to evidence the reality of the great change professed, 
being patient in suffering, and raised entirely above 
the fear of death. As his mother one day read to 
him of the resurrection of the body, he clasped his 
little hands and exclaimed: "0, then, I shall not be 
lame in heaven !" Once he wept, and said he did not 
want to be always lame; but afterward earnestly 
prayed to be forgiven of his momentary impatience. 
It was a solitary instance. When a friend asked him 
if he did not want to get well, he replied: "No, I 
would rather die and go to heaven." "But you do 



388 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

not want to be buried in the cold, dark grave?" In 
a moment he replied: "I am not going there. It is 
only this body." "But you do not want to go to 
heaven and be away from your mother ?" " But," 
said he, "mother is coming too." As his end drew 
near he selected his pall-bearers, and wished the choir 
to sing the hymn, "Thou art gone to the grave," etc. 
The contents of his money-box he gave to the Home 
of the Friendless. As his sufferings increased with 
the progress of the disease, his father asked him if he 
thought he should get well. He answered : " No, but 
I shall soon go to heaven." " Why are you so sure 
of going to heaven when you die ?" He replied with 
confidence: "Because Jesus Christ has forgiven me 
all my sins." After a severe paroxysm of pain his 
mother asked him what he was thinking of? He re- 
plied: "Mother, I do not think. I am only happy 
because God loves me." In this triumphant frame 
he died, aged seven years and three months. 

23. Dr. Thomas Scott's eldest daughter died at four 
and a half years old. She was brought, through 
earnest prayer and instruction, to a distinct knowl- 
edge of the forgiveness of sins. His view was, that 
children are capable of regeneration and the fruits of 
it, as early as they become sinners by actual and 
willful transgression, and being convinced that his 
little daughter had reached that stage, he sought God 
in prayer on her behalf with much agony, and applied 
himself to faithful, and earnest, and affectionate ad- 
monition, and the child was thus brought to Christ, 



EXAMPLES OF EARLY PIETY. 389 

and gave intelligent testimony of a real change. 
The account is too long to transfer to these pages. 

24. But while I record these instances, which might 
he easily swelled to a volume, and are here given 
only as a specimen of the early power of grace, I 
would not have it inferred that all children of such 
tender age must give the same evidence of regenera- 
tion, or pass through the same mental exercises, in 
order to be prepared for heaven. Each child, as each 
adult, has its own peculiar gift, and its own measure 
of capacity. Till the child has forfeited its first justi- 
fication in Christ it is in a gracious state of accept- 
ance. The Savior folds it to his arms as the Shep- 
herd does the lamb. Let not the parent feel distressed 
or anxious for the safety of the dear little one, be- 
cause it may not have the same distinct exercises as 
others. Teach the child to pray, to trust in Jesus 
for pardon and acceptance, for preservation from sin, 
and everlasting life, and believe that till willful trans- 
gression has rejected and forfeited the unconditional 
grace of the atonement, the child is a member of the 
kingdom of heaven. Yet watch the beginning of re- 
sponsible action, and let no sin, however small, or 
however disguised by childish mirth and playfulness, 
be allowed to pass without calling the conscience into 
healthful and salutary action. 

25. But we must close these monographs of infant 
piety. The truthful records of eternity alone will 
disclose the countless millions of the redeemed who 
date their spiritual exercises in earliest childhood. 



390 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

And if ever the Church shall reach the ultimate grace 
of the new covenant, which the prophet foretold, it 
will be when " all shall know the Lord, from the least 
of them unto the greatest of them." Jer. xxxi, 34. 
Isaiah could not complete his glowing picture of the 
millennium, the period of the Church's greatest exten- 
sion and triumph, without the exaltation of childhood. 
The ferocious spirits of men, who, like wild beasts, 
had destroyed the earth, should not only be subdued 
and harmonized, but " a little child should lead them." 
Isa. xi, 6. The figure has a basis of reality. The 
directive influence of society should thenceforward be 
the humility, the gentleness, and the tractableness of 
childhood. Sympathy with childhood should melt and 
subdue the harsh temper of cruelty, selfishness, and 
ambition. The happy state of the Church, and of 
society, in the eye of that same prophet, was when 
"all their children should be taught of the Lord, and 
great should be the peace of their children." Isa. liv, 
13. May the Lord hasten it in its time ! 



DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 391 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DUTY OF THE CHURCH IN THE DEVOTIONAL AND 
EXPERIMENTAL CULTURE OF THE CHILDREN. 

Painful absence of our children from our Church altars and fellow- 
ships — Want of confidence in the professions of childhood piety — 
Rev. Mr. Towsley — Rev. E. Hebard — Children brought up with the 
impression and belief they are outside the Church's pale — The moral 
influence of this practice — Reason why the Church is so coy of child- 
hood profession — Characteristics of childhood piety — God's sympathy 
in childhood wants and infirmities — Error of testing moral principles 
by the apparent greatness of the circumstances which develop them — 
Catechumens of the early Church — Methodist Episcopal Church Dis- 
cipline — Mr. Wesley precedes Robert Raikes — Some further provision 
for the children needed — Experience of a pastor — Sphere of the Sun- 
day school — A new medial provision needed between the Sunday 
school and the Church — Excellences and defects of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church Discipline on the subject. 

This work was not undertaken as a mere doctrinal 
discussion, and I can not now conclude it without 
some further appeal in behalf of childhood Church 
rights. Why are not our children more frequently 
seen at our altars of prayer, our sacramental tables, 
and in the walks and fellowships of Church life? 
Why are the youth of our age so fearfully drifting 
away from the Church? Why are the early promises 
of grace so often blasted, and the unexampled bless- 
ings lavished upon our children so often perverted 
from their right channels, or at least defeated in their 






392 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

ends? To assume to answer these questions perfectly 
would be beyond our wisdom, and is certainly not 
our present proposal; but a few suggestions seem 
called for. 

1. It is an evil among us that the Church even 
yet lacks confidence in the stability of early con- 
versions and early professions of piety. An impres- 
sion still obtains that children should be held some- 
what aloof from Church membership, and kept back 
from the holy sacrament of the Lord's Supper till an 
age of more mature discretion. The early Christians 
often kept back their children from baptism under 
the belief that baptism washed away sin, and, as it 
could not be administered but once, it was desirable 
to receive it near the close of life, or at least later 
on in life, when the temptations of the world had 
mostly lost their power, and the character had be- 
come established. Similar to this is our timidity 
and caution in regard to receiving children into the 
Church. We fear many things. We fear they have 
entered upon their Christian profession without con- 
sideration, impulsively, and that they will turn back 
on the first approach of trial. But, admitting that 
many of these professions are evanescent and spuri- 
ous, are not adult professions often so ? The kingdom 
of heaven is "like a net cast into the sea, and it 
gathered of every kind." Let it be so. The fish- 
erman nevertheless casts in his net, content if the 
balance of the draught is in his favor; and so let us. 
The Church should work for early conversions, and 



mtv 01 Tin: CHURCH. 393 

have confidence in early conversions. And, allow 
that children are easily turned out of the way, our 
well understood this when he said in behalf of 
these very children, and in defense of their imperiled 
interests, "It were better for a man that a mill- 
stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were 
drowned in the depth of the sea, than to offend one 
of these little believers in him.'' But are not adult 
converts often as capricious as children, without their 
docility or gentleness? A few months ago we buried 
the Rev. Mr. Towsley, of Canandaigua, Xew York. 
He was known as "the children's preacher," and one 
of the most effective and earnest laborers in that 
department we have ever known. When about ten 
years old he professed conversion, and his motlrer 
took him to the session to be examined for admission 
into the Church. The first question asked him was, 
"Well, Lorin, had you not rather be out skating 
than here*:*' The question implied distrust either of 
his sincerity or his ability to judge of his own mental 
convictions, and grieved young Towsley deeply. After 
examination they considered the case in council, and 
then told his mother they were satisfied the boy was 
a Christian, but advised that he defer joining the 
Church till he was older. The consequence was that 
the child, turned back thus upon the world, fell into 
sin, and, after a reckless life of several years, was 
reclaimed at sixteen. But his bitter experience gave 
a powerful impulse to his earnest labors for children 
in after years. 



894 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

The Rev. Elijah Hebard died in Geneva, New York, 
a few years since. He was an aged minister in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, an excellent divine, a 
good preacher, and a devout and useful laborer. His 
attainments in theological and Biblical literature were 
uncommon. At about twelve years old he presented 
himself at the door of the Church for admission. 
The preacher declined to receive him, thinking he 
was too young. In fact, it was not believed he knew 
enough to be converted. He took the refusal meekly, 
but still would speak in social meetings till he was 
requested to desist from this also — his gift not being 
considered edifying. Through the influence of his 
excellent mother, and his elder brother Robert, who 
afterward died a missionary in Canada, he was still 
encouraged to live in the way of Christian duty, out- 
side the pale of the Church, till he had reached an 
age and maturity sufficient, in the eyes of Church 
officers, for membership. 

When we see such timidity and worldly cautious- 
ness in admitting children to the sheepfold of the 
Savior, we are ready to ask, For what and for whom 
was the visible Church of Christ instituted? Was it 
for the weak, the "least," the helpless, or only for 
the wise and the strong? True, this barbaric idea 
of Church is passing away, but we have not yet 
fully escaped from the fettering prejudices of our 
fathers. What would be thought of a shepherd who 
should put the little lambs outside the fold, exposed 
to the rough vicissitudes of weather, and the more 



DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 395 

perilous rapacity of ravening wolves, till they had 
attained maturity, or till it should be ascertained 
whether they were sure to live? Is not the Church 
the sheepfold of Christ? This want of confidence 
in the piety of children, this bringing them up out- 
side the Church-pale, this giving to them the impres- 
sion and belief that they are not of the Church but 
of the world, and educating them and indoctrinating 
them in the principle and sentiment that discreet age 
is as necessary as piety as a condition of Church 
membership, all this has driven our children from our 
altars, and alienated them from the religion of their 
fathers. We have held them aloof from Church sym- 
pathy and accountability, and have taught them to 
reckon themselves as belonging to the world, and 
they have grown up in this belief and estimate, and 
it has served them as an excuse for living as the 
world, and following its vain customs. On the other 
hand, how diiferent would be the influence of the 
opposite policy of reckoning them with the saints, 
and as accountable to Church authority, and subject 
to Church discipline, through all the period of child- 
hood life. The belief of such Church connection, 
and the assumed principle of such Church account- 
ability, would be itself a power over the child's mind 
to restrain from sin and incite to duty. I do not 
say that the child must be kept in the Church by 
the simple virtue of its baptism and its religious 
education, without respect to the evidences of its 
personal piety; but I say the Church should have 



396 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD.. 

more confidence in the genuineness and stability of 
childhood professions of piety, and take them to its 
bosom, in good faith and in full membership, at any 
age when they are capable of giving the Christian 
evidences of personal faith in Christ and acceptance 
with God. 

2. One reason why the Church is so coy and dis- 
trustful of childhood profession is due to the error 
of judging them by too high standards. Our tests 
are too intellectual, and have too much reference to 
the higher proprieties of life, and are not enough 
shut up and limited to the moral aspects of the case. 
Our ideas of the solemn propriety due to childhood 
profession often befit a recluse better than a happy 
juvenile worshiper. The child's mind is not capable 
of continued solemnity, or more than momentary 
sorrow. It may seem fickle and thoughtless, but its 
buoyancy is the blessed heritage of its years, and 
the condition of its physical health and growth. 
Heavy burdens would crush it, and care would stint 
and wither the mental faculties. Its nerves, bones, 
and muscles all declare that childhood is not the 
period for physical burden-bearing, while its mental 
development equally evinces its incapacity for any 
serious pressure upon its opening faculties. The 
child is first a creature of sensibility, memory, and 
imagination. The reasoning faculty comes later on. 
Activity, not reflection, is the characteristic of its 
years. It perceives a point, apprehends a simple 
truth, and memory retains it, long before the reason 



DUTY OF THE CIIURCH. 397 

Can trace out causes, connections, and corollaries. 
It is but the germ of manhood, the opening bud of 
the after fruit. Religion in the child is sincere and 
real, but it must be cheerful to suit its lithesome 
nature. The playthings of a child are the text- 
books of its physical education. Its thoughtlessness 
is but the rapidity with which it passes from one 
thing to another without indicating the formal links 
of connection, and without the art of concealment; 
or it may be simply its incapacity to trace connec- 
tions and results by a process of reasoning. It has 
no experience to guide it; the world is to the child 
a beautiful mystery, an attractive charm to the senses, 
and its guileless heart confides and follows not from 
perversity, but innocency and truthfulness. It passes 
from the serious to the gay and playful with ease 
and rapidity, from the same causes, 

3. Why should we require children to be otherwise 
than consistent with their years ? " When I was a 
child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child, I 
understood as a child." How else could a child 
think, speak, and understand? The wisdom and 
duty of the Church are not to attempt the futile 
work of making children think and act like adults, 
but to adapt the means of grace and the offices and 
fellowship of the Church to them. The tests of 
childhood piety are to be found within the sphere 
of their own personal and social life. Their trials, 
their fears, their hopes, their temptations, their mani- 
festations of good or evil principle, arise from circum- 



398 THE KELIGION OP CHILDHOOD. 

stances which appear trifling to us, but they are real 
to them. They live in a world altogether their own — 
it is the sphere in which God has placed them — and 
within that world of ephemeral interests and emotions 
the Church must enter with its sympathizing heart, 
its appreciative understanding, and its guiding hand. 
Does not God enter into sympathy with childhood? 
Does not Jesus pity their unreal fears — comfort them 
in their little trials arising out of their daily sports 
and pastimes? Does he not answer their prayers 
touching these things, and mark with pleasure or 
disapproval the moral feelings they indulge under 
provocation ? Addison seemed almost inspired to 
utter a great truth when he wrote : 

" To all my weak complaints and cries 
Thy mercy lent an ear, 
Ere yet my feeble thoughts had learned 
To form themselves in prayer." 

But David goes further back, and dates the Divine 
care and notice of us at a still earlier period: 

"Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; 
And in thy book all my members were written, 
Which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none 

of them. 
How precious are thy thoughts unto me, Grod ! 
Surely thou art he that didst bring me into the world ; 
Thou didst make me lie secure upon my mother's breast; 
I was cast upon thee from my birth ; 
Thou hast been my God from my earliest breath. 
For thou art my hope, Lord Jehovah ! 
Thou hast been my trust frOm my youth ! 
Upon thee have I leaned from my birth ; 
Thou art he that took me out of my mother's womb." 

Ps. cxxxix, 16, 17 ; and xxii, 9, 10 ; and lxxi, 5, G. (Noye's Translation.) 



DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 399 

If these expressions contain any doctrinal truth at 
all, do they not teach us that God is attentive to all 
the minute events which affect our earliest life, and 
that he respects the feelings and prayer of a child 
in the matter of a toy as truly as those of a man in 
the concerns of a fortune? And, if this be so, does 
it befit the profession of the Church of Christ to 
ignore the events of childhood as tests of piety, or to 
place a light estimate upon childhood profession, be- 
cause the mind at that age is affected with trifles, 
and may be turned out of the way of holiness by- 
trifles? It is a fatal error in ethics to judge of the 
moral importance of an act by the apparent magni- 
tude or the abstract importance of the incident or 
occasion which called it forth. An apple might suffice 
to test the moral integrity of Adam. The ritualistic 
system of Moses attaches severe penalties to acts or 
omissions which would appear trifling when measured 
by New Testament standards. And it is an eternal 
rule of ethics, "He that is unfaithful in that which is 
is unfaithful also in much." "We must judge 
of children by their own standard of thought and 
appreciation, and never take them out of the sphere 
of accountability wherein God has placed them. 
The question to-day remains but imperfectly solved, 
whether the Church will come down to the capacities 
of children in the adaptations of her instrumentalities 
and oversight. We are not now speaking of parental 
duty in coming to the child's capacity, but of Church 
duty. Outside the family circle the child is to fall 



400 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

within the sphere of Church life, and the question is, 
How will the organic body of the Church come to 
regard the child? What shall be its appropriations 
for the specific end of transition from the religious 
life in the family to the wider sphere of conventional 
Church life? 

4. The early Christians reckoned their children as 
catechumens, or candidates for Church membership. 
It was a relation in many respects similar to the 
period of probation for six months prescribed by the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for all her candidates for 
membership. The catechumen, whether child or adult, 
was put upon a course of instruction and discipline 
preparatory to full membership. The duration of this 
preparatory period was variable, according to the pro- 
ficiency of the novitiate, but generally ranged from 
eight months to three years.* This provision was 
deemed a necessary guard upon the purity of the 
Church. In the first age of the Church the apostles 
received members directly by baptism, upon a brief 
and simple confession ; but afterward, in taking con- 
verts from Judaism and paganism, fresh and untaught 
from their superstitious associations, it was judged 
prudent to pass them through a preparatory course 
before admitting them to the bosom of Church fel- 
lowship. This custom arose in the latter part of the 
second century, reached its culminating point in the 

* In the Constitution of the Apostles three years are prescribed ; 
in the Council of Illiberi, A. D. 673, two years ; by that of Agatha, 
A. D. 506, eight months. (Coleman's Ch. Antiquities.) 



DUTY OF THE CHURCII. 401 

fifth century, and then gradually declined; but, 
though modified as to form, has continued down to 
this day in its essential features. 

Now, the point I wish to make here is, that this 
preparatory stage of instruction and discipline, for 
which we have the example of the Church for several 
hundred years, and which, in a modified form, has 
continued in the Church through all ages, might be 
so modified as to suit the wants of childhood life. 
The catechumens, though not admitted to all the priv- 
ileges of the Church, were yet under Church disci- 
pline. The Church had power to inflict on them cen- 
sure and disabilities. Their period of probation, or 
pupilage, could be prolonged, and their baptism, to 
such as had not been baptized, could be deferred. 
They might die under this Church sentence, which 
was, indeed, regarded as a serious calamity. Mean- 
while, the Church was not so fully responsible for 
their delinquency as for its full members. The errors 
or the scandals of the catechumens did not stain the 
reputation of the Church, because the Church held 
them still in a state of candidacy, or as they were 
sometimes called in the Latin Church, "pupils, begin- 
ners, novitiates, learners" There was a Church con- 
nection, involving a Church profession on the part of 
the candidates, a Church oversight and responsibility 
on the part of the body of believers, which distin- 
guished them on the one hand from the non-profess- 
ing world, and on the other from the full privilege of 

the "faithful" the "enlightened," the "perfect" the 

34 



402 THE KELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

" initiated" as they were called — that is, of the or- 
ganic body of the saints. It was the transition period 
of Church life. Is not this a definable, recognizable, 
and, so far as its essential features are concerned, a 
Scripturally authorized state? Reason, experience, 
and Scripture unite to commend and enjoin such a 
Church provision. 

5. The Methodist Episcopal Church prescribes a pe- 
riod of six months' trial for all her members. During 
that period the candidate is required to inform himself 
as to her discipline and doctrines, and at the expiration 
of the term, being satisfied with the Church, and the 
Church being satisfied with his profession and walk, 
he being baptized is eligible to admission. But dur- 
ing this period of trial the probationer, if baptized, is 
entitled to all the spiritual privileges of the Church, 
the Lord's Supper included. It is on the score only 
of ecclesiastical right and eligibility that he is dis- 
abled. But this probationary period is suited only to 
adults. There is no adequate provision for children 
here. It is true the language of her Discipline does 
not restrict the period of trial to six months. It 
says of baptized children "who give evidence of a 
principle and habit of piety, they may be admitted 
into full membership in our Church, on the recom- 
mendation of a leader with whom they have met at 
least six months in class," etc. But usage generally 
restricts the period to six months, and certainly the 
probationary period is not a provision for all the 
years of childhood life. We admit them to probation 



L 



DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 403 

only when they shall "give evidence of a desire to 
flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from 
their sins," and the very mention of "six months'" 
trial supposes the candidate already at an age suffi- 
cient for full membership. Now, as the Church de- 
clares that, anterior to this probationary state, " all 
children who have been baptized are placed in visible 
covenant relation to God, and under the special care 
and supervision of the Church" should not the 
Church make some "special" provision for their 
"care and supervision?" Notwithstanding the above 
noble and most opportune declaration of childhood 
Church relations, is there not still wanting a method 
or system of Church oversight better adapted to 
children as such, to all children, and not merely to 
those of an age to come out and make public pro- 
fession? Between the family religious life and the 
public Church life of the child, is there not a transi- 
tional period to be provided for, in which the more 
delicate appliances of Church instrumentality and 
privilege may be brought effectively to bear upon the 
early conscience and forming character? It is just 
here that Churches mostly fail. The child, though 
baptized, is still brought up under the impression and 
belief that it sustains no Church accountability, and 
it is practically treated as if it were outside the 
Church's pale. If it sin and go astray it is not a 
Church, but a purely parental care. No Church 
voice is called forth, no Church censure incurred. In 
this, are we not behind the post-apostolic Church? 



404 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

In speaking to these points I fear, when I open my 
lips, lest I should not only offend against the wisdom 
of past ages, but the generation of God's living 
saints. The Methodist Episcopal Church has done 
nobly. Her antecedents are marked and honorable 
in this respect. She has incorporated the Sabbath 
school directly into her ecclesiastical and spiritual 
economy, and brought it under the eye and super- 
vision of her authority. This is right. The chil- 
dren are a trust left us by the Divine Lord and 
Savior. She has also inserted in her Discipline a 
special chapter in behalf of children, and their rela- 
tion to the Church. Mr. Wesley anticipated Robert 
Raikes by sixteen years. The epoch of Sunday 
school organizations dates about three years later 
than the personal labors of Mr. Raikes, in 1785, when 
the " Society for promoting Sunday Schools through- 
out the British dominions" was organized. But in 
1766, nineteen years previous, Mr. Wesley had laid 
down a regular plan of instruction for children, re- 
quiring the preachers "to spend at least an hour 
twice a week with the children of the societies, wher- 
ever ten of them could be assembled." Jt is to be 
feared that our labors have not had the same direct- 
ness and earnestness in bringing them to Christ and 
the Church as this great man contemplated. The 
Sunday school is a most glorious harbinger of the 
millennium, but it can not meet all the spiritual, espe- 
cially all the Church, wants of childhood. 

6. If we were to venture upon. more specific sug- 



DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 405 

gestions, wc would say the children should be gath- 
ered into class meetings and prayer meetings and 
separately met. These meetings should be led by 
the best female minds in the Church. Women are 
more capable of this than men. The female mind is 
more patient, affectional, analytic, imaginative, ac- 
curate in detail, lively, perceptive, and intuitional. 
God made woman to develop and manage the early 
reason and conscience. I speak only of the general 
law of distinction ; there are always exceptions. 
These meetings should be an integral part of the 
Church institution. They should be short, cheerful, 
largely, colloquial, and familiar. The child should 
know that its name is on the catechumen's record, 
that it is already planted in the nursery of the 
Church, that it has a connection with the Church, 
and is the subject of Church approval or censure. 
But names should not be stricken from this list of 
" beginners" hastily. The penalty of delinquency 
should not be excision, but a prolongation of the 
period of trial. It is not a period for severe Church 
requisition. Delinquencies here do not affect the 
Church vitally, as in the adult membership. This 
stage of the catechumens — we call it by this name 
for want of a better just now — might be made to 
include the present six months of probation in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, or it might be anterior 
to it. Children and youth might be taken directly 
from the catechumen's list into full membership, upon 
the recommendation of the leader with whom they 



406 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

had met at least six months in class; or the Church 
provision might require them to be transplanted first 
into the probationer's list, and then into full mem- 
bership. The simpler method, however, and one that 
would equally answer the end and spirit of the pres- 
ent probationary rule, would be to transfer them 
direct from the catechumen's list to full membership 
in the Church. The discretion of the Church would 
always be a sufficient guard against imprudent or 
hasty transfers. The danger lies not on the side of 
premature transfers, but on the side of unreasonable 
and untimely delays. 

7. A worthy and faithful pastor in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church told me recently that he had been 
so impressed that the children should be brought 
under more thorough Church supervision, that he 
appointed an evening of the week to meet them for 
prayer, conversation, and the recital of religious ex- 
perience. He took their names in a book and ex- 
plained to them that it was not receiving them into 
the Church, but only to keep account of their attend- 
ance, and to enable him better to look after them, 
adding that they might join on trial in the Church 
if they proved themselves worthy. These children he 
met for eight months. His usual method with them 
was to ask them questions, to indulge in conversation, 
to call on them to recite their personal religious exer- 
cises and experience, and to devote a portion of the 
time to prayer. The meetings grew in interest, and 
the children grew in knowledge and in grace. They 



DUTY OF THE CHURCH. 407 

improved also in their habits of devotion, and their 
ability to speak of Divine things. At length the 
time came for bringing them forward and presenting 
them for membership on trial in the Church. Twenty 
were thus presented, of ages varying from ten to 
eighteen years, and at an average age about thirteen 
years. They had been gathered in solely as the fruit 
of that special evening of prayer and labor. Their 
reception into a higher Church relation was an event 
of great interest to the Church, accompanied with 
special power upon the hearts of the people. Many 
w r ept w T ho were not accustomed to weep. The Lord's 
Supper was administered, and the Church was re- 
freshed as with a revival, through the silent, patient 
working of this simple instrumentality. Here is the 
hope of the Church. The children must be early 
turned to the sanctuary by efforts suited to their age 
and capacity, and persevered in till they reach ma- 
turity. A young student for the ministry of another 
denomination, who, by courtesy, attended a class 
meeting of the pastor above referred to, at which a 
large proportion of these children were present, was 
greatly affected with the rehearsal of their experiences, 
and the perfect adaptation of the class meeting to the 
wants of the young, and remarked afterward that he 
had covenanted with God while sitting and hearing, 
that when he should become settled over a congrega- 
tion he would adopt that method of training the 
children. 

8. It must not be forgotten that devotional exer- 



408 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

cises are distinct from doctrinal teaching, and the 
child needs help and direction in the one as much as 
in the other. The early Christian Church made the 
department of worship a distinct branch of the train- 
ing and culture of the catechumens. Our Sunday 
schools can never supply the want of children in this 
respect. The child must learn to pray and express its 
religious states in social meetings by actual exercise. 
The forms and proprieties of worship are learned, 
and become familiar by simple instructions and by 
practice. The spirit and morals of Christianity are 
more clearly brought before the mind in the place 
and exercise of worship, mingled as it should be with 
familiar questions and instructions. In order to this 
children must be by themselves, with one in whom 
they confide, whom they love, and to whom they can 
freely commit the secret and sacred exercises of then- 
hearts. 0, if pastors, and parents, and Churches 
knew their power, and opportunity, and duty here, 
they would enter at once this most fertile field of 
prepared soil, and, with a diligence that knows no 
rest, " in the morning sow their seed and in the even- 
ing withhold not their hand." The Sabbath school 
has its legitimate sphere. Nothing can supersede it, 
nothing can compensate the want of it. But it can 
not, from the nature of the case, supply all the 
higher wants of the child's mind. The time allotted 
for the weekly exercises, the number and miscella- 
neous character of those present, the variety and 
rapid succession of the duties, all go to preclude the 



DUTY OF THE CHURCII. 409 

possibility of meeting all the wants of the child. 
The faithful teacher may find much opportunity of 
personal conversation, but it is in brief moments, in 
the midst of other duties. The element of Bible in- 
struction must continue to be the staple of our Sun- 
day schools. The element of devotion can be but 
imperfectly introduced, while the opportunity of per- 
sonal culture in spiritual and experimental religion 
must occupy but a secondary place. Between the 
Sunday school and the Church there is still wanting 
a provision, a medial institution, which -shall combine 
in itself the moral culture of the Sunday schools and 
the devotional and experimental characteristics of the 
Church, and by blending the two, secure the culmina- 
ting fruits of the one, and prepare for the sublime 
enjoyments and relations of the other. 

9. The Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church has not, indeed, prescribed this specific form 
of service for the children, but it has clearly lodged 
with the preacher the power and prerogative of ap- 
pointing it. One of the questions put to the preacher 
as conditional of his reception into the pastoral min- 
istry is, "Will you diligently instruct the children in 
every place?" And one of the rules laid down for 
the pastor is, "To publicly catechise the children in 
the Sunday school, and at special meetings appointed 
for that purpose;" and it is made his duty, in his 
quarterly report, "to state to what extent he has 
publicly or privately catechised the children of his 

charge." It is also made the duty of pastors " to 

35 



410 THE RELIGION OF CHILDHOOD. 

preach to the children," and to "enforce faithfully 
upon parents and Sunday school teachers the great 
importance of instructing children in the doctrines 
and duties of our holy religion." The whole tenor 
of the Methodist Discipline on this subject goes to 
show the earnest care of the Church, and that she 
has aimed to lay before her pastors and members the 
full outline of their duty, and to lodge with the 
pastor the power to do all that is requisite to the 
godly teaching and edification of the children. Yet 
it appears obvious that the Church has not consid- 
ered the importance of a distinct provision for the 
children, separate from the ordinary existing Church 
means of grace, such as the institution of a prayer 
and class meeting, wherein the children can be met 
apart, and where the object is personal culture in 
worship and religious experience. This, however, 
the pastor has power to appoint at discretion, and 
the only advantage of a Church rule in the case 
would be to make the practice uniform and universal. 
Preaching to children is specifically required, and 
though widely practiced is not universal, and is not 
sufficiently frequent. "When shall we learn that the 
hope of the Church is in the children, and that to 
this most remunerative field our unsparing toil should 
be given. In turning our attention to the children 
we do not neglect the adults. In feeding the lambs 
we shall feed the sheep also, and in taking them in 
our arms to the Savior we shall most effectually draw 
the parent thither, and subdue the pride and obstinacy 



DUTY OF THE CnURCII. 411 

of the old offender. "A little child shall lead them." 
Many a revival, which has caused the stout-hearted 
to how before the power of the Spirit like the waving 
harvest before the strong wind, has originated in the 
Sunday school, and through the instrumentality of 
converted children. But with more tillage and cul- 
ture the soil that now yields "thirty-fold" would 
yield " some sixty and some an hundred-fold." The 
age is marked by no omen more hopeful than that 
of its devotion to the religious wants and nurture of 
childhood; and the Church will have no weightier 
item in her last account than this of her care for the 
children. And in that great day when the Lord and 
Shepherd of souls shall ask, " Where is the flock that 
was given thee, the beautiful flock?" may each 
parent, and each teacher in the great army of Sunday 
schools, and each pastor of the Lord's flock respond, 
"Behold, I and the children the Lord hath given 
me!" 




Mi 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Sept. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA J6066 
(724)779-2111 






^ - 



